Speculating on the Future of the LFR, the CRZ and Dungeons.

There are some changes coming with the next patch and those changes might effect some of the things we have become used to, like them or not, like last tier 5 mans, the CRZ and the LFR.  I've been pondering them and figured I would do what I always do and share some of my opinions on them.

Will Flex Raiding Destroy the LFR?

If I had to make a quick jump decision I would answer, yes I hope it does.  If I were to think it out a little bit I would say, it won't but it will change the face of it as we know it now.  At least that is how I see it.

I have often said that the LFR is too hard for the average player and I stand by that.  It really is way too hard for the average player.  With the addition of flex raiding I feel it will shorten the life of the LFR for those people that are, for lack of a better term, above average.  The players that are decent in their own right but are not really great.

Those people are the heart and soul of the LFR.  They are the one that make it possible for the average player to actually finish the LFR.  I've been in some awesome groups, some great groups, some average groups and some horrible groups.  All of them however would be the exact same group, a horrible group, if you removed the above average players.

Those above average players are the ones that dictate which group you are in.  Get a group with more than 18 above average players and it is an awesome group.  13 above average players can mean it is a great group, 10 might be a good group, while 5 or 6 might only be doable.  Get to the point where there are only 1 or 2 or even 3 above average players that are not in one of the control roles and it could very well be a horrible run.

While I can still see many above average players, the ones that make the LFR possible, running the random raids I don't see them doing it as long as they are right now.  Lets just take where we are for example.  Myself and many others like me do not need anything from the LFR, have not needed anything for a very long time, but we still run it for runstones because we are not downing all 6 of those end bosses each week.  Or any in my case now that I am doing 25s and only getting 3 bosses in per week, not downing much of anything each week.  So I really have no choice but to run it.  There are a great deal of above average players in that same boat and those people are the ones that make an LFR run nice and smooth. Whenever you are in a smooth run, thank them, or yourself if you are one of them.  But what if they were gone?

Then you would have groups like I talk about sometimes.  Nightmares that seem to never end.  LFRs filled with the average player.  The average player is bad.  Really bad.

I did my LFRs last night, the last 2 looking for runestones.  Once again, if it were not for the guaranteed drop I would have gotten none again.  I swear I will never get that cloak, but that is another story.  It was nice and smooth and super fast.  I was able to get both parts done in less than an hour run time.  Even adding queue time, 8 minutes for the last part and 34 minutes for the second to last part, it still took less than 2 hours total.  My weekend runs, when those better players looking for their runestones are not there, take 2 hours just to do them while in them.  Sometimes 3 hours.  And the wait times are doubled, tripled, even quadrupled on occasion.

When flex raiding comes people will be more likely to do that to get their runestones (if there is something like that, just using it as an example).  Better gear, no queue, self assembled, any number of people, the ability to get achievements, collect quest items, and you still get valor.

Is there really a comparison to be made?  They are two different types of things.  One is randomly grouped content that becomes too hard for most while the other is assembled content that becomes easier than normal because you can communicate.

Being flex raiding does not lock you to bosses either you can actually help your buddies if you wanted to.  You ran your flex raid and downed the first 5 but on the weekend your buddies want to go but do not have a tank.  Well, you can tank, you can not get loot off the first 5, but you can help your friends down them.  Holy freaking awesome batman.  When are they adding this to the real raid.  Lock people to bosses so they can only loot them once a week.  We need that.

This means that the pug society will return.  Not saying the pug world was much better than the LFR world.  I remember assembling pug raids that took an hour plus to get going, similar to some LFR queue times.  But if you are going to wait for an hour why not wait for better gear.  I also remember joining pugs that failed on trash.  So there are bad pugs too, it is not all rosy in pug world, but at least it is assembled.

But all this is assuming the difficulty is such that a pug can do it.  The last time the pug community on my server had any decent success, or even existed, was in wrath when your worst pug would at least do 3/12, most would do 6/12 and many could do 10/12.  You would need a much better hand picked group to get a full clear which still was extremely rare on my server, but it could be done.  And either way, lets face it, if you could even do 6/12 pugs at a moments notice because pugs are always running, it would not be so bad would it?

If the new flex raids are slightly easier than 30% ICC or at least close to it then you very will might have a return to pugs running 24/7 and if that is the case then my main can get his runestones in flex, my alts can gear up through flex, and I could drag my friends that really aren't that great through flex to hopefully teach them.  Something I have tried but really can not do in the LFR unless I can get a mostly guild group to queue up for it.

Speaking of that, our guild always did weekly LFR runs.  We would test out new people there just to get to see them, gear up some alts knowing we had some mains there to cover for our doing 60K instead of more, basically bring the whole crew and have a little fun.  LFR was always easy when you had at least 15 in guild with you.

Now we have flex raid for that.  If we can get 15 together, or 18, or 12, we will just run a flex raid.  Again, better gear, just us, ability to communicate, learn, teach, and have some fun with our guild mates and perhaps a few pug friends from our server or others as we can cross server flex, and you have a winner all the way around.

So what does all this mean?

If there will be pugs running 24/7.  And flex raiding will be very pug friendly by allowing people to do the same bosses again, by being easier content for an organized, even if not great group, and it offers so much more than the LFR can in terms of gear, special loot, achievements and the such, why do the LFR?

Would this mean that only the worst of the worst will be left in the LFR after the first few weeks?  I can see the above average players still doing it those early weeks.  After all, what I always say, an upgrade is an upgrade is an upgrade.  And if the new weapon, trinket, or tier set is so good that even the LFR version is worth getting I will run all three modes, LFR, flex and normal to increase my chances of getting one of them.  But with that comes three times more likely for me to get it (or not get it knowing me) and that will shorten the time I feel I need to do the LFR.

Once I do not need anything from it I will drop it like its hot.  Just like once you do not need valor any longer you stop grinding it.  I keep myself at 3K all the time now and if I get an upgrade I use 500 on it to get my 8 extra item levels and recap my 3K instantly.  But it is human nature to try to remove the need to do things.  And if I can remove the need to do LFR like I have removed the need to valor cap, I will do so. In a heartbeat.  Heck, I have been actively avoiding it on my alts even if they do need a lot of gear from there and rep.

But I would still run flex with my friends and fellow raiders.  Flex will take the place that LFR once had.  The place where I felt I needed to do it.  Like I need to do it for runestones now.  If flex were out now and we were clearing flex I would just get my runestones there and so would anyone else that was a halfway decent player which leaves who for the LFR groups?  The average or worse, less than average, players.

If I already call the LFR too hard sometimes for the masses what do you think it will be like when the above average players have absolutely no reason to do them.  And even those people that love the LFR because it fits their raid whenever schedule, if flex raiding is anything like wrath raiding where there are pugs going 24/7 what do you think those people will choose?  A possibly very hard LFR with trolls galore or a flex raid with better rewards?  I don't think I need to tell you what my answer would be.

LFR is not going anywhere, at least for now.  But it will need to be adjusted to the new denizens that will be in it.  And if blizzard does not adapt to it fast and realize that only the worst of the worst are there, it can implode on itself and become completely worthless.

If they do not considerably lower the difficulty of the LFR I can see flex raiding destroying it.  This is of course with the hope that flex raiding is indeed easy enough for the masses and brings back the 24/7 pug community.  And with my next section it shows why I believe the return of the 24/7 pug community is possible.

Will there still be a CRZ when we get Virtual Realms?

The CRZ was added because blizzard did not want to admit they needed to merge servers.  The CRZ showed everything wrong with how it should be done.  It was quite possibly the worst addition to the game ever. 

I've always argued that if I wanted to be on a small server I should have that right.  But that was only one tiny part of why I hated the CRZ.  Server merges would have been better but it was not going to happen.  For that to happen blizzard would need to admit it was not as big as it once was.  Not like they need to, we all know that, but they wanted to save face.

So along comes server merges without using the word server merges.  Call it virtual realms.  Don't let the name deceive you.  This is not something new and interesting, it is just a server merge system without actually having to merge servers.  All this effort to save face really.

Will I complain about the same things I did with CRZ?  Nope.  Not at all and not in the slightest.  While my one big complaint was if I wanted to play on a small server I should have that right, this is difference.  CRZ was putting me with people on other servers, virtual realms are merging servers.  Sure, I do not like that I don't have my quiet rare farming world that I used to, but a merge is a merge.  I can still have a choice.  I can still move to another server that is a smaller merged server, if I choose.  I can still escape it some whereas I had no opt out from the CRZ.  So virtual realms are better already.  They will offer choice.  Sure that choice comes at the cost of a server transfer, but it is still a choice like it or not.  Now the ball is in my court should I want to move.  Not like with the CRZ when I had no choice what so ever.

Virtual realms also address a lot of the other issues I had with CRZ.  I'll go over a few.

Resources: 

When someone from Thrall (for example) would mine ore, it effectively gets removed from my server.  If there were people from other servers, larger ones, farming, there was less available for my server.  This meant higher prices, stress of not being able to find any resources, and competition with someone that you could not even buy it off of if you needed it. 

Now with virtual realms you are not only grouped with the realms you are with, but you share an auction house.  So if some guy from Thrall is clearing out all the silver ore and I can not find any, at least it will be on my auction house from him instead of disappearing from my servers balance. 

While the guy you are competing with is still the enemy in a sense because you want those nodes, at least what he gets is not being removed from your server.  I used to be that everyone that minded something was basically stealing it from your server for his.  He will be using it on your virtual realm or selling it on your virtual realm.  It is no longer some other server taking your stuff, so to speak.

Trading:

You can not trade someone in the CRZ.  Even if you met up with someone while leveling and decided to quest with them and you each added one another to your friends list.  If some green shoulders dropped that you both hit greed on and you won and then he said, wait I can use those, you were screwed.  You could not trade the shoulders to him.  Even if you both had rights to it.  Even if you both rolled on it.  It is no longer tradable.  Another reason the CRZ sucked.  With virtual realms that other person you met from another server is actually linked to your server which means you can pass the shoulders along to him freely.  Nice.

Buying:

Being you could not trade you could not buy.  Someone wanted to sell some nice BoE drop at a reasonable price.  He wanted 10K and on your server it was usually 25K on the AH.  But being he can not trade it to you, you could not put gold in the window to pay him for it.  He could not even put it on the AH for you to buy and trade it that way.  CRZ really sucked for many things and that was one of them.  Now with virtual realms you can trade or use the AH, either way, you are on the same realm effectively thanks to the server merge. 

Guild:

You could meet someone while running around a CRZ and become friends with them.  Your guild could need a holy paladin and he just happens to be a holy paladin without a guild.  Sorry CRZ will not allow you to raid current content with him.  Sorry CRZ will not allow you to invite him to your guild.  Seriously, what was the use of CRZ if you could meet people, become friends with them, and then can't do anything with them?  One of the myriad of reasons that made the CRZ the worst addition to the game ever.  With virtual reams who cares if the guy is on another server.  He can tag along in the current raid or he can even join your guild.  Now if the CRZ allowed that to begin with, as it should have, there would be no need for virtual realms.

There are lots of things that will benefit from the server merge but shhhh, don't call it that.  If blizzard knew we knew what it really was they might cancel it.  They really seem to fear merging servers.  That is why they gave us the biggest pile of dog crap ever introduced to the game, the CRZ.  Because they figured it would be better to shit on their player base than to admit they needed to merge servers.

But with that in mind, with virtual servers, will CRZ still be needed?  Will they still be attempting to over populate dead zones that are only dead because there is really no reason to be there and you level through it in 30 minutes?  Come on people, zones you spend 30 minutes in do not need life, spend your time and resources on things that matter.  Not making it seem like there are 5 people in feralas instead of 2. 

If you really want to fill out those lower level areas then reduce leveling speed to a crawl again and watch the zones fill up.  That is why it always felt like they were full, because people actually spent time there.  They only seem empty because the game has changed, accept it and move on, leveling zones are fine if they are not full, the CRZ was never needed to give leveling zones life because leveling zones do not need life.

I wonder if the CRZ will go the way of the dodo once the virtual realms come out.  I doubt it because they will still want to give those leveling zones life for some odd reason, but would we really still need it?

Are dungeons really dead?

I know a great deal of people love five mans and I do in some case as well.  I can live with or without them.  I do agree with the sentiment that it felt like they were really lacking this expansion.  Having the last raid patch of the expansion come out without a three pack of new dungeons is contrary to what we have seen the last two expansions.  We have, as a community, kind of gotten used to that quick catch up mechanic that was the late expansion five mans.

People have been asking all expansion if there would be any more five man dungeons and they said no.  They went the way of the scenario this expansion for better or worse depending on who you ask.  Some love the holy trinity and others like the need for nothing special, just queue and go type of groups.  Both have their advantages of course.

But if dungeons were really dying out and losing favor with the designers we would see when the last raid patch came out wouldn't we?  The ICC 3 and the Twilight 3 show us we should have the Org 3 this expansion right?  Nope, because it does seem like 5 mans have lost their place in the hearts of the designers.

I must say I always liked those last raid patch dungeons.  They worked as the perfect catch up for my alts that had been neglected all expansion really.  I also have some fond memories of them.  Halls of reflection might have been one of the biggest tear inducing dungeons of all time but I loved getting [We're not retreating; We're advancing in a different direction] my first time in there because it has to be one of the greatest achievement names ever and it was a pretty fun race against the clock.  But for random groups, it was surely a nightmare sometimes.

Having something become part of wow culture is one thing but losing it is another.  We lost the nessingwary quest line in cataclysm and I even made a post about it.  It would be nice to think that post, in some part, helped ensure his return this expansion but perhaps it was just an oversight last expansion like the many of other things they forgot to include.

No dungeons at the end of this expansion can not be chalked up to an oversight.  It would be a clear decision on the part of the game makers to move away from five man content and to move away from the end of the expansion catch up mechanic that they were so good for.

I think not having any new 5 man dungeons at the end of this expansion might be very telling as to what we can expect the next expansion.  The possible moving away from dungeon content as the predominant catch up and random content filler to something more complete including scenarios and LFR.  But with LFR being such the joke it is and scenarios not exactly being a reasonable way to gear up because you only get a shot a decent piece of gear once a day instead of once a run means neither of them are in the position to replace dungeons.

So the removal of dungeons and no addition of anything that can take their place in the grand scheme of things makes you wonder if they really are dead.  Not adding them AND not replacing them with something else might just mean they are phasing them out completely as content for anything other than release.  And even as someone that can give or take them I think that is the wrong move.  I might not be one of the people that love them and scream to get them back but I am also not someone that is going to say don't waste your time on them and make something else.  I am perfectly neutral about them and I think abandoning them, even more so from the last raid patch, is a huge mistake.  The question is, what should we read into it.  If anything.

Bonus topic:  Random Grouping

Do you think the trend against random grouping will continue?

When the LFD was first introduced I loved the idea of it.  Even if I was in a guild, and that guild I found because of having to assemble groups by hand, I still had a hard time getting my dungeons done each day.  Most days I never did.

As anyone that played before the days of the LFD will tell you group content was time consuming to assemble for.   It was a choice to spend the day in trade or to go out and do things.  Couldn't have it both ways.  Of course in time once I made a name for myself and was getting invited to groups a little more often it did free me up to go out in the world and do stuff and still occasionally get my dungeon in.  I could just wait for a whisper while doing my dailies and if one did not come I would head back to the city and try to spam until I could find a group.  Most days I never did.  On a good week I ran my dungeon 3 times, maybe, just maybe, 4.  I don't think I ever ran my daily dungeon each day.  Ever.

Then everything become random groups.  Even raids did later on.  And the communities started to fall apart after wrath when the merged 10 and 25 man raiding into one thing and pugs stopped.  Between lack of pugs, lack of community, lack of assembly, the game started to become automated.

Log in, do random content, cap, wait for raid night.

But recently we have been seeing more and more of a push to self assembly.  It started a bit ago with rated battlegrounds and now it has extended to PvE with heroic scenarios last patch and flex raiding next patch.

I have to give blizzard some props here.  Nice work on attempting, albeit slowly, to build community again.  Adding virtual realms is also a huge step in that direction even if most people do not notice it as such.  By merging servers, oops, don't tell them I said that, they are making it possible for even what was once a small server to have more people for non-random content.  By adding flex raiding and more so the ability to do the same bosses again, they are stepping up the ability to pug.

They are making a solid push forward into returning us to where we came from, but in a better position than we were when we were there.  The days of assembled groups are returning, or might be returning, we will see.  But it is clear, at least in my mind, that blizzard is trying to let the community help itself again by adding some things to the game that will allow us to be a community again and step away from the "log in, do random content, cap, wait for raid night" that cataclysm basically became and mists expanded on at first.

With two patches in a row having content that needs to be assembled instead of randomed into, do you think this is a trend that will continue?  Do you think it is a trend that should continue?

The one thing I worry about is the absence of  random content in place of this assembled content.  They need to work a balance.  And if they had given us our 3 pack of dungeons this last raid tier and if they do make LFR a lot easier for the people that will be left in it, with those and the addition of flex raiding and server merged virtual realms, we could have the perfect balance of community and ease all in one nice bundle.

The balance is close to where I think it would be perfect but at the moment they are pushing assembled content so hard as the flex raiding and virtual realms support it, that they are forgetting the random content completely.  How long do you think they will push it and how much should they before it is too much?  That is something worth thinking about.

Either way, I am looking forward to once again trying to develop into a community again.  I guess it is time for me to shrug off my anti-social tendencies and once again enter the world so to speak.  It has been so long since I only ran with guild or in random content.  I don't even know if I remember how to pug in trade like I used to do every single day of my gaming life before the introduction of the LFD. Well hello there community, welcome back.  I've missed you.

Is Life Required?

While exploring the world the other day and thinking about all the cool and interesting things I have found over the years I started to wonder if having a zone filled with life was really required in the game.  As in the reason they created the cross realm zone was to breathe life into areas that seemed desolate.  Is it really necessary?

For the most part I believe that the leveling experience, and most things related to it, is a solo experience now and it is best experienced that way.  There is no joy in waiting for quest mobs to respawn, quest items to respawn, or the escort quest NPCs to come back from someone else walking them 100 yards that they could not walk themselves for some odd reason.

There was a time when the world needed life.  It took a long time to level and it was better to do that leveling with other people so obviously having other people around helped in the endeavor to find other people to level with.  There were a great deal of quests that even a hunter could not solo so grouping was a requirement if you wanted to get them done.  To group up you needed other people around.

Those days are long gone and the mobs that you need a group for are now few and far between.  While there might still be a few mobs that you would beg out for help killing, the speed of leveling made it more of a choice to just not do that quest instead of the choice of finding a group.  No longer do you need to do that quest because leveling took a lot of time and quests offered a lot of experience.  You can skip it now and still be well done with the zone long before you run out of things to do there.  Life in a zone is no longer required for group quests because the game no longer has them.

Another change since when leveling took a much longer time is that the idea of crafting items to wear made sense.  If you had a leatherworker and could craft yourself a new pair of pants it was a good idea to do so.  If you were not a leatherworker you would ask if there were leatherworkers around.  It was worth spending the time to find someone that could make them for you and doing so in the area you were in was the best place to do it.  The person in the area would most likely be around your level and that means their leatherworking should be around the level to make you gear you needed.

It was also a good way to meet people that perhaps you could end up grouping with for those group quests I mentioned previously.  People would be glad to help you out for little or no coins really because they got a skill up as well and being it took so long to level they surely had mass quantities of leather, more than enough to make leveling easier unlike now where you will usually level faster than you could keep up with your skills if you had taken leatherworking and skinning.  I remember someone crafting me some shoulders after we did a group quest together, because I did not have any yet and they had so much leather anyway.  Ah, the old days, you have to love them.

That pair of pants that you had someone make for you by asking in the zone would last you a while.  Even if you got a better pair 20 quests later, that 20 quests later would be hours if not a day of play time later.  Not 15 minutes later like it is now.  So your need to make something for yourself or seek someone else to make something while out leveling has basically been removed from the game that is now designed to be a solo endeavor where crafting is all but useless while leveling.  Just like your character your crafting abilities do not really mean anything until you reach max level.  So life is no longer needed to seek out people to craft things for you or for people you can craft things for.

And what about those dungeons.  You would collect a few quests here and there that would lead you to a dungeon and most assuredly, unless you are stupid like I was when I started and tired to do them solo, you would not enter a dungeon alone.  You would create a group. 

To most effectively create a group you would ask in general and there were surely people in that zone that had picked up quests for that dungeon and just like yourself they needed others to do it.  A little general spamming and some time later to meet up at an area and you were now with four other people you most likely had never met and you were ready to adventure into a new world, a dungeon, perhaps even for the first time.  This was an instanced group quest basically and it was the absolutely number one best reason for areas being filled with life, because you were not going to be getting these instanced group quests done without the help of others.

Enter the looking for dungeon finder and the need for the zone being full of life was completely removed.  No longer did you need to assemble a group and meet new people, which was excellent for community and the first place I met someone that invited me to a guild because of.  You just queue up and you are in the dungeon you want to be in.  There was also the added effect that there was no longer a need to travel to said dungeon, queue up and you are instantly there and when it is done you are instantly back where you started from before you went in. 

Further down the line they even removed most of the quests from the outside world that lead into them.  Now, all those quests you used to go around collecting doing all the quest lines in an area to basically earn those special quests are given to you right at the entrance meaning you did not even need to quest in that area to get the quests for the dungeon.  They are sitting there waiting for you.

With the absence of need to assemble a group or even quest to open the the special dungeon quests there is no need to even be in the zone, nevertheless make a group through posting in general to get into the dungeon to get it done.  That massive loss for the community was replaced by the instant gratification system of queue and kill.  So does the world really need life for dungeons any longer?  No.

Lets look at the simple aspects of competition.  From player vs player to gathering nodes to achievement hunting and see if life is really needed for them.

At first glance, even someone like myself that was against the cross realm zone, the idea of player vs player with zones being filled with life was the only true winner.  In concept it seemed like a good idea but it did not work out as planned, at least not from the people you hear talking about it and there are reasons for that.

The game has become so streamlined to level you as fast as possible that the quest to get there is about getting there as fast as possible because the end game is all that matters.  The journey to the end game is better played alone, as it has been designed to be done thanks to the lack of need for any communication or connection with another person, as mentioned above.

This translated the same to player vs player with the one down side that there are so many levels with such insane gear inflation that higher level characters can pass by and spam a low powered AoE spell and take you and everyone else around you out before you even notice they are there.

If you ever did a study on human nature and used the players of wow as the subjects you would be scared to death for the future of humanity because it would seem as if the entire world lives to make the lives of others hell. 

In a lifeless world you might run across a jerk killing your quest givers once in a while and killing you with a sneeze here and there but in a life filled world that happens all to often.  You are killed every step you take, your quest givers are killed every step you take, your mobs are killed every quest you take, everything anyone can do to make your life hell is done every step you take.  Not in an effort of competition but because some people live to make the lives of others hell.  And you wonder why I say watching wow would make you have little faith in the future of humanity.  This is it.  If these people are our future leaders, we are in for trouble.  More life in a zone did not create more PvP, it created more ways for those people to ruin the game play of others. 

Not for competition sake like two 35s fighting over a gold node, but for the fun someone gets ruining someone elses fun.  Like killing them as they try to mine the node and taking it from them.  Then mounting and flying behind them waiting for them to find another node only to kill them just as they are about to get it and then taking it and doing this over and over again.  It has happened to me.  I gave up after having three nodes stolen from me by a guy that was just taking them for no reason other then to screw with me.  More life in the zone when it comes to PvP is not good, not at all, not when it is used by the type of people that play this game.  At least I did not cry to him about it, I played it how it should be played.  I logged out and did something else.  But what of the poor guy that does not have alts?  Would he just get fed up and quit the game because of this more life version of the world?

Speaking of nodes and the competition for them, with the speed of leveling now, it is quite possible you can out level gathering professions and I've had it happen as have many others.  It is just a matter of luck, or lack thereof, on when you play and who else is around.  When leveling took longer, even if there were copious amounts of competition you would not really fall behind because you would be in an area for a much longer time and you would get your fair share of herbs and ore along the way because of it.  Now with the speed of leveling, each node is like a lifeline to moving on.  Without it, your professions get left behind.  Add to that flying mounts and a massively filled area.  Lets not even consider bots in the equation or things would really start to seem bleak, even more than they already can be. 

Filling a zone with life and people higher level flying all over grabbing things you need is not about competition any more.  It is not you and another person racing to a node and seeing who can get there first.  It is some flying max level character landing on it as you are walking to it and just fought three mobs, that were not one shot battles like they would be for him, to get to it.  That is not competition.  It is not fun.  And it is not the type of life servers need.  Is life required?  Surely not this type of life. 

If anything it takes away from the fun of the game to constantly fight your way to a resource only to see people from many different zones constantly land on it just as you are finally making your hard fought way to it.  I am not sure what some people consider fun, but this is not fun and this is not required, thus the life CRZ brings to a zone that creates this is not required either.

Lets look at people going back in content now for achievements or hunter pets or battle pets.  Does competition make this more fun or less?  Most people do things like achievement hunting or pet battles to pass the time and just have some fun.  Filling zones takes out a great deal of the fun factor from this.

Try getting frostbitten now with 12 realms all together or the time lost proto drake.  I've been hunting this guy for years now.  Back in wrath I would constantly be the only person in the zone.  Maybe on rare occasion there might be another person or two there and I never saw it.  Never even saw its dead body.  I flew around, picked herbs, killed a few things here and there to pass the time and gather some meat.  You name it, I kept myself busy there in an effort to find it for what has to be more hours then I care to even hazard to guess at.  Now, with more life in the zone, I can go and fly to the spawn spots and there are usually 6-8 people at each one.  If I could not get it in years and years of trying when I had little to no competition how am I supposed to have a chance of getting it now?  How is having less of a chance to get something supposed to be more enjoyable?

While camping the minfernal with dozens of other people flying around one spawned and I was quick enough to get it before anyone else.  Partly by luck and partly by being a lot smarter than the rest of the pet hunters there.  While they were all high up in the air I was hovering just over the ground and when it spawned I was on it before anyone else moved.  So yes, I know the excitement of getting a rare spawn among many  people camping for it.  It does make it that much sweeter to be the one that got it but that should have never been required.  There is no need for there to be that type of competition there.  There had to be at least 8 different servers there, all hovering over the area, all looking for one to spawn.  All probably curing the other people there yelling things like get off my server.

Does it really bring anything to the game to make more people compete for things like that?  Things that are supposed to be for fun or cosmetic purposes only.  I do not believe so and I do not believe that artificially creating additional rarity by making more people wait for the same thing is a good idea as it brings nothing to the game but hard feelings. 

Like the one time I entered storm peaks a few weeks ago and saw a shit storm in general because someone had downed time lost and everyone was fighting that it should have been theirs and this was bull crap and everything.  Reading the talk, the time lost in question was downed nearly two hours prior.  These people were all angry, a little to much for a game if you ask me but to each their own, over something that should have never been.  Losing the time lost to someone on a different server.

It really comes down to something as simple as that.  People will lose it to people they should be competing against and deal with it but losing it to someone that is not even on your server seems to bring people to a whole new level of anger.  So is having more life in these zones required?  No.  As a matter of fact, it is bad for the game.  If there were eight servers worth of players there and each of them where on their own server one on each server would have just gotten the mount instead of just one person leaving all the others to think, you stole my kill.  Even if they have no basis for thinking that, as a grouped server means that kill belongs to everyone on it, people will still feel the way they feel.

Is life required in a zone?

I don't think so and as a matter of fact with the way the game is now I think it would be better to have less life in zones instead of more.  The leveling process is meant to be quick now.  It is meant to be solo now.  So why is there this sudden desire from blizzard to make the world seem full?  Perhaps it is just so they can say, look how great the game is doing, there are people everywhere and all zones are full. 

Hey, blizzard, let me let you in on a little secret.  The guys that spent two hours complaining about losing the time lost proto drake to someone that didn't deserve to get it because they are not on their server does not give a shit if the game looks like it is dying.  They only care about playing the game and having fun.

There are at least 7 other guys that would be praising the game for being great because they just for the time lost but they didn't, so now they are saying how much the game sucks.  There are dozens more that would have been upset they lost it, but not as upset because someone from a different server got it.  It is not good design to upset people, so much so that they go on about how horrible the game is for hours in general, just so you can make it appear the zones are full.  Do you honestly think the person that got it cares if there were 2 or 200 people in the zone.  They don't.  They just care that they got it because for the majority of players that is all that matters, getting it, not how many people you beat to it.

Happy players make for good vibes and good vibes are good for the game.  Angry and upset customers can spread this disgust with the game to others and quit and maybe bring others with them.

Making the cross realm zones when the old zones really did not need any life just made many angry people so they could save face and make it appear as if the game were not dying. 

The game is dying, face it.  It was at 12M and it will never be there again.  But it is not going anywhere soon.  Saying wow is dying because it only has 10M subscribers is like me saying I am dying because I got a cold.  Sure, I am dying, some day, just not any time soon and neither is wow.  So stop trying to fill the old world with life to make it seem like it is doing better than it really is, because it is not necessary.

Do you want to know how to make the world seem more alive?  
1) Remove flying mounts. 
- Pretty hard for the roads and cities to seem alive when everyone in the game is hovering over them and out of sight.
2) Give people a reason to be out in the world. 
- Random drops that are cool or sell well can be a great motivator among other things. 
3) Offer 1 free server transfer a month. 
- So if people do not like their dead or packed server, they can switch and not complain they do not have the money. 

There is really no need to mash up people on to some mega server.  Never has been, never will be.  It is bad design, badly thought out, with bad results.  Nothing more.  Life is not required in the old zones, why try to bring it there?

Blizzard Announces Mandatory Faction, Race and Class Changes Coming

Warning: This post is meant to be taken tongue in cheek, while trying to prove a point.

In a recent announcement blizzard has said that they intended to expand on the success and exceptionally good reception that the cross realms zones have received while trying to balance the game and are taking it to the next step in balancing the game to be better for everyone, "If they like it or not", Daxxarri, a community manager on the US forums, is quoted as saying.

The following is an excerpt from the announcement on the main page:

We are proud to announce our continued efforts in balancing the game by addressing the faction imbalance, race imbalance, sex imbalance and class imbalance in the coming months.  Over the next year we hope to make the game more balanced than it has ever been in our efforts to push forward our vision of how you, the player, really wants the game.

The following is a schedule for when you can expect the changes:

December 18th, 2012, 5.1 Released and mandatory faction balancing being enforced.
March 12th, 2013, 5.2 Released and mandatory race and sex balancing being enforced.
July 23rd, 2013, 5.3 Released and mandatory class change balancing being enforced.

Please use this thread for any discussion on the matter and I will attempt to answer any reasonable questions.

Personally I am a bit worried about this change.  I paid to sex change characters, I paid to race change characters, I paid to faction transfer characters and I paid to server transfer characters.  They have already dismissed my concerns about paying to be on a smaller server by placing me on a larger cross realm zone against my will.  This will just further enforce things on me I might not want.

What if on my main server, being it is leaning slightly alliance they want to turn some of my characters horde.  I do not want them horde.  What if they change my only blacksmith or only engineer horde, I like having at least one of each profession on that server.  Can I change back?  The word mandatory seems to make it seem like I can't.  If they change my warrior, which is my engineer to horde and I pay to change it back can they force it to turn horde again and once more I would be put in the position that I paid to be for something they will not let me have like I paid to be on a small server and they said screw you, we are putting you on a large server?

After reading the announcement I have so many questions but if you have ever read here before I do not post on the battle net forums because it is a cesspool there and I do not want to deal with the garbage community that they do not moderate or the rude community managers that herd us all together like cattle and all but call anyone that disagrees with them an idiot.  So I decided that others would ask my questions and I would pick and choose some of those questions and answers to share here, at least the ones that I personally find important to me.

Now to the questions and answers that impact me, and maybe you.

Q: "I paid to be on a small server and was forced on to the cross realm zone does this mean that if I paid to be horde I could be forced to be alliance?"

A: "No one is forcing you to do anything, you can choose to not play, you can pay to faction change or you can embrace the changes and understand we know what you want better than you know what you want.  Your opinion really doesn't matter.  That is why we do not care if you paid to be on a small server and put you in a cross realm zone and that is why if your server is heavy horde we might change you to alliance to help balance the game.  It will be better for everyone, trust me.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Being you mentioned class changes for 5.3 does that mean we will also be getting a paid class change service?"

A: "Yes.  It has been asked for by the community for a long time and we felt that it was about time we added it to the game.  As you know we attempt to give the people what they want but there will be some restrictions.  If you are moving from a high played class to a low played class the price will be cheaper than moving from a middle played class to a low played class.  This is in an effort to try and help balance the classes.  If you play a low played class you will not be allowed to change your class as it would create a further imbalance and we are trying our best to correct that.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "If you are going to "enforce", your own words, class changes, why would I pay to change my class when you are going to do it for me for free like it or not?"

A: "If you want to pay to change your class and it makes an imbalance we will just change someone else to compensate.  For example, if you go from a warrior to a priest we will change one priest on your server to a warrior.  Your money means you have a choice and your choice means something when it comes with payment.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "If our money means something then how come me paying to be on a small server did not matter?"

A: "Why ask stupid questions?  I am not going to dignify that with an answer but wanted to tell all the people that keep bringing that up how great the cross realm zones have been for the game if you would just take your head out of your ass long enough to stop complaining about a few dollars wasted you would notice it. If anything, you people paying to be on small servers are the reason we had to do this.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "So what you are basically saying is that if I change my class I am screwing someone else out of theirs?"

A: "No, not at all.  They will, in turn, have the ability to pay to change their class too.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "If people keep paying is it possible it can come back to me and make me change even if I paid to change at one point before?"

A: "Possible?  Yes.  Likely? No.  Our data shows that not everyone is willing to pay for services like that so sooner or later the break point will come where everyone gets to play the class they like and we create a balance that is better for the game all at the same time.  Impressive right?
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "You were always against class changes, what changed?"

A: "The proving grounds are being added in 5.3 along with class changes.  When someone pays for a class change or is upgraded to a class change they will have to clear a series of class specific providing grounds that should make sure they have the acceptable skills to play their new class.  They will stay in that phased proving ground until they are capable of completing it.  So if they are bad, they are not going to be playing that class, simple as that.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Upgraded to a class change?  If I want to play a death knight I would not consider being forced to be a warrior an upgrade."

A: "And you are always right?  We have the data, we know better than you.  If you are chosen to be a warrior it is with good reason.  Whether you like it or not does not matter.  Leave it to be someone that rolls a death knight to complain about being a warrior.  I'll make sure your name is on the list for one of the first accounts we upgrade when this is implemented.  Female gnome warrior has a nice ring to it if you ask me.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "What if I do not want to play a horde character?"

A: "I have three words for you, Paid Faction Transfer.  Seriously, you could not figure that out on your own?
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Is it really needed to go this far?  50/50 male/female, 50/50 horde/alliance, all classes equally represented, etc?"

A: "For the betterment of the game, yes.  And in case you are wondering, I have all the data that proves that.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Why would there need to be sex balance?"

A: "How do the dwarves have little baby dwarves if there are no females?  The game needs to have some balance in everything and we think it is important that there is a balance of the sexes just as much as we believe that there should be a balance in PvP.  The only difference is that it will be a lot easier to balance the sexes as that is an exact number.  It will not effect your game play and will be better for the game.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "What if I do not want to be a male/female?"

A: "Do you really think you, as one person, is more important than the entire balance of the game?  Don't be so selfish.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "If I pay to play this game shouldn't I have some say in how, where and as what I play it?"

A: "Of course you shouldn't. Remember one thing.  This is my game, you just pay for it.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Why don't you just force us to play the specs you want us to play too being we will no longer have the right to choose what server we play on, what sex our character is, what faction, what class or what race?  Where does it stop?"

A: "We can't spoil everything for you but I will say this, in 6.0: Return of the Legion, we will be adding a mandatory spec alignment to the game which should all but remove any wait time from any random content ever again.  It is a long term goal of ours to bring the best game we can to the players and by making sure everyone is playing the roles that are needed to create that balance is just a small part of it.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "What if someone doesn't know how to heal?  Will they still have an option to DPS and if not how can they do quests?"

A: "Excellent question, thanks for not being a whiny little bitch like everyone else has been here and asking about game design.  If someone does not want to heal they can just leave their character in the proving grounds and roll another character, that will be allowed by the game, as only characters that are needed, race, sex, faction, spec and class will be capable of being created now.  From the list of what is open, they can decide.  As for your second question, no, they will not have a DPS spec, they will need to learn how to quest as a healer but fear not.  All healers will have an NPC that can be used to tank for them while they are questing just as all tanks will have a healer NPC that will keep them healed.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "You finally mentioned something I love, NPCs that will allow me to quest as a healer or tank.  Thanks for adding that."

A:  "You're welcome.  That was all my idea, so feel free to praise me because I am so perfect and awesome and I am turning this game into the greatest game ever as long as everyone steps in line and does things exactly how I tell them to do them.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Don't you think is it a little obnoxious to ask people to just step in line and do everything you say?"

A: "Can't you tell a joke when you hear one.  I did not mean it as you are taking it.  You seem to think you have a choice and you don't.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "So basically what you are saying with all these changes coming in the next year is that I have to play the class you want me to play, the race you want me to play, the sex you want me to be, the faction you want me on, and fill the role you want me too, no matter what I want to do?"

A: "You forgot one important thing, you have to play on the server we want you to play on.  It all started by us taking money from people that wanted to transfer to another server for whatever reason and then completely ignoring their desire to be on said server and putting them on the one we wanted them on.  But yes, all you said, and the server thing.  That is what I am saying.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "Is there any way to stop you from doing this?  The community is in an uproar, just look at all the forums here and on fan sites all around the net, no one wants this."

A: "You had your chance to stop this but you didn't.  When we made cross realm zones and people complained and then let it go while they got distracted by mists which was not cross realm you basically lost your voice.  You said to us, its okay, as long as we have new material to play.  So we will be releasing content faster, as the schedule shows just like you wished, and we will be changing your character as we wish, and you will like it, just like you now like cross realm zone.  Out of sight, out of mind.  Three months of being a warlock and you will get used to it.  Don't worry about it.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "So all of these ideas came from the cross realm zone?"

A:  "Absolutely. You paid to be on a small server, we screwed you over and put you on a massive merged server against your will, you complained for a while and then you fell in line like the sheep that you are.  You will all continue to fall in line and play whatever class, race, role, we want you too because you are all sheep.
- Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street"

Q: "But I want to be a paladin."

A: Suck it up buttercup.  I am sick and tired of I want, I want, I want.  Just do what we tell you to do and stop being so selfish, I have all the data and I know what is best for the game.  All of you people are just whiny little selfish jerks that would not know what is best for the game and I am sick of it.  I am done answering questions for the day.  GC out"

 Warning: This post is meant to be taken tongue in cheek, while trying to prove a point.

CRZ: A Lazy Solution

Of all my complains about the cross realm zones, that are not technical of course, my biggest one is that it is a lazy solution to a much bigger problem that blizzard created for themselves.

The main intent that they say the cross realm zone is for is to make the world seem a little more alive while leveling.  Lets forget for a moment that it creates all types of problems elsewhere like people trying to do the achievement yesterday with people from five or more different realms all on mammoths standing on the NPC while flagged for PvP on a PvE realm looking to grief people that just want to get an achievement and have some fun.  This alone is reason enough to say the CRZ idea sucks, but that is really just a side effect to what they are, or say they are, trying to do.  Bring life back to the leveling areas.

Well, the solution is actually a lot simpler than wasting man hours developing a cross realm system.  Slow down leveling.  The reason the lower levels do not see anyone while leveling any more is because people level way to quickly.  That means they speed through leveling and usually have all the max level characters they would want.  So that means they reroll less often than they did before, which means less people out there leveling.  Adding to that super fast leveling is the dungeon finder where you can level from 15-85 without ever leaving a city if you were so inclined to do so.

That is a self made problem.  They made leveling so fast it is blink and you miss it.  They allow low level dungeon finders to level people without leaving their home city.  They created this problem and now they are using a lazy solution to attempt to fix the error they made.

The world is empty because that is what they designed it to be, empty.  They made it so people will not be out there.  If they wanted to fill the questing zones they could do that if they put a little more effort into it instead of taking the easy way out and condensing everyone onto the same server.

Slow down leveling to the point where it would take considerable time again.  The areas would be full of people if people weren't speeding through them.  It works on many levels too.  Not just the speed of leveling through a zone but if you wanted to reroll it slows down the reroll process.  So instead of you leveling 5 new classes in one month, it would take a year or so to level them all, thus making the world look fuller from your participation alone for one year instead of one month.  That is part one of a better solution.

Part two would be, give people a reason to get out in the world again.  There are many ways to make low level zones something everyone would want to visit but instead of building a new design to professions, which would require more materials from all over the world at all levels, they went the easy route of cross realm.  Instead of adding more world events that would make people get out, think the rifts in rift and their rewards regardless of level so all would want to do it, they went the easy route with cross realm.  Instead of adding achievements in those zones for achievement hunters, even if they were as simple as fish 1000 fish in X zone, they went the easy route of cross realm.  There are hundreds of ideas that would get people out in the world if they just took the effort to add them, but they went the easy route with cross realm as a fix all for everything.

Another part is the random dungeon finder.  Lower the experience so low that it would not even be worth doing it unless you have a quest there.  While dungeon leveling is considerably slower than leveling it is not so much so that it turns people off from doing it.  As long as many of the players think of it as a viable leveling option, even if they are wrong, they will not go out in the world if they feel they can level efficiently while standing in their home city.

I can see why they do not lower the dungeon experience and make the leveling take a lot longer, they fear backlash from the players.  The reason for this cross realm zone is to cover up for the fact the world is dead in part to them losing players left and right.  So they do not want to take the chance of scaring more off. 

The fact they are missing is a fair deal of players that left the game probably left because of the speed of leveling.  When they reached end game at the beginning of cataclysm and it was too hard for them, they went to level an alt and they were maxed on that too fast and were in the same position they were before.  End game with nothing they could do.  Slow or fast, they would lose people, but at least slow leveling would make the world look more alive and keep people playing longer.

Even if it is the fear of scaring more people away that does not change the fact that cross realm zones are a lazy solution to making the world look full again while leveling.  The real solution would be to make the world full again while leveling by adding content, making people spend more time in that content, and making it worthwhile to be in those areas.

If they really wanted to make the world look full again they would slow down the leveling experience a fair deal, create a lot more content that is worth doing in those areas, and give people a reason to be there instead of staying in a city.  But instead of creating quality content to get us out in the world they decided to use the cross realm zones to try and make it look like more people were out in the world, and it still doesn't.  If you have leveled a new character recently you will know that for the most part the world is still completely empty most of the time.  Starting zones are the only things that seem more alive. 

So the world does not really seem more alive because of the cross realm zone except for those moments like yesterday at pirates day when 5 servers worth of people all decided to grief people just trying to have fun during a holiday event by being on top of the NPC with their mammoths while flagged for PvP.

This is proof that not only is the cross realm zone a lazy solution but it is also the wrong solution.

In the end, if blizzard really wants to make the leveling world look full they should have created content to make the players want to get out in the world and not tried to cover it up with a lazy solution.

5 Reasons the CRZ is Awesome For Leveling

Here is a list of the top 5 reasons why the new cross realm zones are an awesome addition to warcraft for leveling.

1) Help With Those Elite Mobs.
- Remember that bear that you had the quest for in darkshore that you tried to kill alone and died, near instantly on.  And the second time even when planning you could not get him down to even 80% life before he ripped your face off.  Now with cross realm zones you can easily find someone else questing that you can join with the give that bear the beating he deserves.

2) LF 2 More Maraudon
- There are a lot of good quests reward from the quests in maraudon and it is impossible to find a group to do them on a low population server but now your problem is solved.  With the cross realm zones the area will be filled with young adventures that will join you on your mission in maraudon to complete those quests and get those great items.

3) Leveling Take So Long, So Make Friends
- Being leveling takes so long and it could be weeks, months or even years before you get to max level why wait until you have gotten there before you start to build the types of friendships that can last forever.  With the cross realm zones you can now find many people that are questing in the same areas as you and you can group up to do those quests that would take forever together otherwise and get to know each other over the course of those weeks or months or years.  Leveling with a friend is always better when it is a long grind.

4) Give Life To The Zones You Spend The Most Time In.
- When you reach a new zone you will see a whole new part of the world that you have never seen before and you have to consider stetting your hearthstone to your questing areas because you spend so much time there right? Instead of spending the next three weeks finishing those quests in an empty expanse you will now see people all over the place making the zones you will spend the most time in while leveling feel more alive.

5) Leveling Should Be Fun
- You will spend more time leveling than anything else you do in the game so why not live in a vibrant world with people all around you.  With cross realm zones even places like everlook will be growing hubs of constant activity.  For the weeks and months you spend in that area it will be as busy as any capital city ever was thanks to the cross realm zones which make it feel like it is an important part of the game again.


Note:  For the sarcasm impaired I will explain.

6, 7 or 8 years ago what I said was completely true.  Back then a cross realm zone would have been fantastic.  Now, none of those things matter even in the slightest.
1) There are no elite mobs that people can not solo any more and the few ones that there are the game always gives you help for them.
2) The looking for dungeon removed the need to assemble groups while in a zone or in a capital and travel there.
3) Leveling is so fast now, even when you take your time and building friendships while leveling is harder because everything flies by so quickly.  If you play 2 hours more than your new friend you will now be many levels above him and in a different zone.
4) There is no zone you will spend more than a short time in, no one really cares if there is life in the zone being they will be in another zone before they even realize the last zone had life.
5) Leveling took a longer time before and that grind could have used some fun added to it with more people around but the new leveling which is sneeze and you missed a level is so fast that it is more of an inconvenience to getting to the end game, where the game actually begins, and adding more people that can take your quest mobs, thus slowing you down in your speed run to end game is an annoyance, not a plus.

Stay tuned for...

5 Reasons the CRZ is awesome for PvP
5 Reasons the CRZ is awesome for gathering
5 Reasons the CRZ is awesome for the economy
5 Reasons the CRZ is awesome for role play
5 Reasons the CRZ is awesome for the community

CRZs & Your ISP: Not a Love Story

After many days and many tickets that went from asking a question, to asking for help, to desperation, to anger and rudeness and getting absolutely nothing from GMs but cut and paste answers, even when I was online and they could have talked to me, that ignored my base request and never addressed the actual problem I ran into a GM last night that actually knew how to do his job.

After a new ticket I put in that asked for some help with a possible repair option, thinking it might be something tied to the time issue between CRZs a GM actually spoke to me.  I had said, being you refuse to speak to me about the CRZs could you at least please help me with this lag.  It is ruining my game play completely and I am all out if ideas.  All I want to is be back on my own server were I never had any lag issues.  I am at wits end and I am completely sick of this.

The new GM contacted me as I was listing some auctions and the conversation went something like as follows.

Me: Sorry about being so rude but I am at wits end, I've tried everything I was asked to do and it has not worked.  I have even tried to do some things on my own that I thought might work.  It is just really frustrating.
GM: It is okay, I understand the frustration. Lets see what we can do to help with that.
Me: If we can do this without a complete reinstall it would be nice, I really don't want to have to do that.
GM: We will see what we can do to try and make sure you do not need to.
GM: I've went over your tickets and have a few questions.
Me: Shoot.
GM: What have you tried that was not part of what we suggested?
Me: I tried lowering my graphics to the lowest setting and that did not work.
Me: I am downloading the 32 bit version now being I normally play in 64 bit to see if maybe the 64 bit is my problem.
GM: That is a very good trouble shooting idea, keep doing that.
Me: I'm trying everything I can think of.
GM: Are you still getting the 134 error?
Me: No, those have stopped but I still get the disconnects, just not the 134 pop up.
GM: Okay, the 134 error usually comes when you have not finished downloading the game.
Me: I can say with 100% certainty that I was completely downloaded when I first encountered it.
GM: You are sure?
Me: Yes.  Absolutely.
GM: Interesting.
GM: I see you are from the east coast, do you happen to use time warner cable or roadrunner.
Me: Yes, how did you know?
GM: We are having some issues with connections from them at the moment.
Me: So it is not the CRZs that is causing the problems?
GM: No, looking over your problems the cross realm zone might be responsible for many of them, but the lag you keep mentioning is probably from your ISP.
Me: So why did the lag start as soon as the CRZ was released?
GM: I can't really say, coincidence maybe, but we are looking into it to see if and how we can fix it.
Me: Why couldn't they just put me back in my server while they fix the errors?
GM: That is just not possible any more.
Me: I really hate this new CRZ thing, I just want to go back to playing the game without lag.
GM: They are working on finding why some ISPs are having issues communicating with the new system.
GM: I hope we are able to fix this soon.
Me: I hope so too. lol
GM: I am going to reply to your ticket with some links you can follow to see the progress on the situation.  It is happening to many people and the thread has some idea that might be able to help for the time being.
Me: Thank you, and thank you for being the first GM to actually talk to me and not just tell me delete my WTF folder as the fix all for everything.
GM: You're welcome.

In one conversation the GM addressed me wanting to go back to my old server, made me feel as if he actually wanted to help me, and found out what could be causing the problems.  All by spending a few minutes talking to me instead of cut and pasting some line from a book of solutions they have at their desk.  I guess most of the GMs are just drones that only know how to read from a book but it is nice to see that there are some that actually try to help people.

In my experiences over the years with GMs I would have to say that if they just send a letter response they are usually useless 90% of the time.  They always seem to send you a cut and paste that has absolutely nothing to do with the question you asked.  However, when you speak to a GM it is the exact opposite, you have a 90% success rate, or at least you feel like you accomplished something.

Seems like most GMs have lost touch with what their job is.  If you work in customer service, like their job is, the customer is always right.  Even if they are being a dick, they are always right.  You give them a line that will appease them even if it is a lie.  You tell them things are being looked into, you say you wish you could help but have no power, but you always address their problem because if they reported the problem it is important to them.  Seems like blizzard skipped teaching a fair deal of their employees this.  Anyone in customer service should know the basics of kissing ass basically and their reps do not.

Mind you, the one that talked to me could have just been telling me what I wanted to hear.  He could have been telling the truth that they are looking into it or it could have been a lie but either way, it made me happy.  That is what a good customer service representative does, makes the customers feel better.

In the end, if you are having the same lag spikes I would like to share with you the information I have found.

1) If you have in game issues, like mobs disappearing, it is the CRZ.
2) If you have lag spikes, it might be your ISP.

While the GM said it might be a coincidence that the lag spikes started when the CRZ did, I will believe they are connected.  He, as an employee, is not about to admit it is their fault.  If anything, that is the job of a representative to admit later on, when they solve it.

Follow this discussion here:
Horrible latency with road runner Part 1
Horrible latency with road runner Part 2

Some signs it might be the ISP issue.

1) If you have excellent frame rate but you get lag spikes.
2) Your graphics are fine but you get lag spikes.
3) You can chat in guild chat fine but can't cast spells.

Some suggestions from people that they said helped.

1) Create a character on a pacific time zone server and log into it when you have lag, then go back to your character.
2) Restart WoW completely, as in close it out and start fresh, not just log out and back in.

To help with them solve the issues you can run a trace route and post it.  This is how you do that.

1) Visit this site, media college, for details on how to run a trace route.
2) The IP address for your server can be found here on wowpedia.
3) Even if you are in a CRZ and not on your server, use your servers IP.
4) Only do this during a high latency time.
5) Post the entire trace route to the forum listed above.

Being these problems started with the implementation of 5.0.4 and the introduction of the CRZs it is impossible to believe that the CRZs have nothing to do with it.  Reading through the forums will show you that everyone that is having an issue had it start when the CRZs started.  I am no expert but I would say that the roadrunner ISP is having issues with the way they are bouncing people around servers and that is what is causing the lag spikes.  So the error is on blizzards side in how they are handling the transfer of data with the CRZs.  We just have to sit back and hope they fix it soon or mist's launch will be horrible on many levels.

Remember, you do not need to be east coast US to be having these problems.  Anyone that happens to go through an east coast hub will experience this problem.  A friend of mine on the pacific coast that uses a central server has been having the same lag spikes, when running a trace route he saw he was bouncing through road runner in new york, hence the issues.  So even if you are not from the east coast and not on an east coast server it is very possible that the lag spikes are because of this issue.  It is also the reason why many people that do not use road runner and are not on the east coast are experiencing the issue, if the CRZ puts you on an east coast server you will get lag because you are almost assured to run through a new york based road runner ISP.

Every other problem you have had with the CRZ is completely an issue with the CRZ.  If you wanted to, and I do, you could call this a CRZ problem as well.  To those UK people, you are lucky you do not have to route through NY.  I envy you.

At least this addresses my biggest problem with the CRZ, and that is lag, but it doesn't mean I like the CRZ, still hate the idea of it completely.  But if they can fix this, I'll learn to live with it, I'll just bitch about it because that is what I do best.

CRZ - It Should be Optional

There are a great deal of people pushing back against blizzard for the implementation of the cross realm zones.  I've even asked everyone that does not like it to start putting in tickets every day on every character they have asking for the ability to disable the option.

I've been in a back and forth with a GM about it for days now and I refuse to let it go until I get what I want from them.  So I will share my experiences with you.

I have a good connection, a great computer, brand spanking new actually, and have never had problems with the game in any way really.  On the rare occasion if I have an issue it is usually my internet service provider having issues, not the game itself.

With the release of the cross realm zones I have experienced dozens of crashes from error 134 to lag spikes that just make me hang there until I force close and reboot.  I've had my computer completely crash as soon as I changed zones three times.  I have constant lag and can not even quest because of it.  If I try to interrupt a spell even if I am dead on balls accurate hitting the interrupt the millisecond the cast bar starts I will not interrupt the spell.  If I try to do the fire in the skies quest in molten front it will take me an hour because while I see myself hitting the targets directly, the game sees it as me not hitting them.

The game has reached a level of being completely unplayable.  There are so many other bugs that I can mention but nothing can beat the constant lag spikes.  Oddly enough the few characters I have that have not left stormwind or org since the release of cross realm zones do not have any problems what so ever.  It seems once my character leaves stormwind or org however that they are ruined forever.  Any character I have that has been out in the world has those lag issues now in anything I do.  While in the city, while in a random, while in a raid.  Going out in the world has ruined my ability to play those characters.

I can do randoms all day long with no lag or problems on a character that has not left stormwind since the introduction of the CRZ.  I've actually done that on one.  Ran looking for raid, both parts, to get used to my new skills and rotation and 6 dungeons.   Not one single lag spike at all.

Yet on a character that has been out in the world even once since the release of CRZs I can not even do one random without massive lag spikes.  If I go into a random with one of those characters I have been forced to restart at least once per run and have constant lag spikes every run.  They can't say there is no connection.  If every character that has not stepped out of the main city can do them with no problem and I can not even get one good run with any character that has, that means going out into the cross zone realm changed something in the setting or files that is causing it.

So I wrote this all out, with detailed information about my system and the errors and put in a ticket from the web site to blizzard asking simply, please remove me from the cross realm zones as I wish to be able to play the game again.

The response I got was the usual blizzard crap.  Delete the WTF folder.  You do know what WTF stands for right, what the fuck.  That was the response I had for that.  I did it however, I would do anything to stop these lag spikes that make the game impossible to have any fun playing the game.

After doing so I logged in and had the same problems.  I put in another ticket that said, I deleted the WTF flies as suggested and it has not helped, I am still experiencing errors, disconnects and lag spikes no matter where I am.  Could you please just put me back on my own server.

Next response they once again completely ignored my pleading to be returned to my own server were life was nice and there was no such thing as lag.  They did not even make a mention of it in their reply.  This time around they wanted me to rename the WTF and two other folders and try again.

I did just as they asked, even if all I wanted was to be on my own server, and logged in again.  Mounted up and took a fly around to see how things were working and disconnected once I changed zones.  At least it was not an error 134 this time, maybe we were getting somewhere.  I changed zones again, disconnected again.  This time when I logged back in not only had I been disconnected but it also dismounted me.  Thank god I was pretty darn high up and was on my druid, it gave me enough time to save a repair bill as I popped instant bird and headed back to fill out another reply.

I said, I did everything you asked, again, and it did not work, can you please, pretty please with a cherry on top, just let me get back on my own server so I can play again.  All I want to do is play.  Nothing you are offering me is helping me, your system is not ready for release.  Just leave me be and remove me from the cross realm zone.

Once again the GMs totally ignored my pleas.  I was still being nice about it.  I was not rude in any way.  I even made a joke with the cherry on top thing hoping that perhaps it might cheer up the GM and they would take mercy on my soul and let me play the game by putting me back on the server I belong on.  This time around, instead of actually addressing what I asked, they gave me detailed instructions on how to run a repair on the game itself.

Okay, so repair it is and repair it is that did not work either.  I popped on a character and used my hearth to get to dalaran because I wanted to do the dailies there.  I landed in the inn and everything seemed fine.  I walked out of the inn and headed to the fishing trainer to get the fishing daily and then had a benny hill moment.  In super speed, and with no control over my character, I moved backwards to the point where I first landed in dalaran when I hearthed in.  Admittedly it was humorous to watch, very much so, but it was also annoying when it happened a second and third time within 10 minutes.

Just add this to the huge pile of errors thanks to this cross realm zone crap.  I was now reaching the point that I no longer was going to be nice about it.  I was not going to ask to be removed from the cross realm zones.  I was going to demand it.  It was no longer a wait until we fix it thing, I just want to play the game I pay for.  Is that really that much to ask?

Before I put in another ticket I took it upon myself to try and remove another possibility of what might be causing the error and I lowered my graphics from ultra to low.  Mind you, I can have two copies of warcraft on ultra, one copy of rift at max as well and my browser open playing videos on youtube all at the same time and have not even come close to over loading my computer so I doubted that graphics were an issue, but you never know and I wanted to rule it out.  On low graphics I mounted up in dalaran and headed to icecrown, figured I would do a little mining while checking it out.

Before I even got to icecrown I had another benny hill moment and rewound all the way to when I turned in the fishing daily.  Flying backwards is funny with super fast wings flapping, but at this point it was more annoying.  I then tried it again and crossed from crystalsong forest into icecrown and disconnected.   I wanted to scream.  I logged back in to head back to dalaran and disconnected again crossing back into crystalsong forest from icecrown.  I was cursing the people at blizzard now, it was not a nice sight to see me at the moment, the words I said at that moment should never be said in mixed company.  I log back in and get to dalaran and put in another ticket.

I tried everything you asked of me, I said, please just put me on my server.  I paid to be on that server.  If you want to put me on another server you can pay for it.  I am sick of the errors and the game is completely unplayable.  Just put me on the server I paid to be on.  Do not tell me to try something else, just fix it and put me back on my server.

As you can tell, while still not rude, I was getting a little hot under the collar now.  Even worse when they sent me another message back telling me to try three things.  One was the WTF thing, for a second time which leads me to believe that whoever answered it did not look at things that were already tried.  Second was run the repair tool, been there and done that too.  Third was to disable all addons.  I was actually surprised that this was not the first thing they suggested.  It is blizzzards MO to always blame everything on addons.  I thought they told all GMs to always blame addons for everything.

So even if I told them not to give me any more suggestions to fix it they gave me one.  Even if I demanded to be put back on my server they ignored me again.  Either way, like an idiot, I did what they asked and disabled all addons.  Heck, I even removed them all, so there were no addons at all.  I changed the name of the folder so they could not effect anything even by freak accident.  It did nothing.  I still disconnected the second I left the city.  I still had lag spikes but guess what, they were higher now and more frequent.  Gee thanks for the awesome idea blizzard.

I left addons disabled, I redid everything they asked previously.  I deleted folders, ran repairs, renamed other folders, even added my little thing of setting the graphics really low.  I did it all at once this time.  And I log in on a character I have not tested with yet, so I knew I had a clean test subject, and left stormwind and crashed the second I left stormwind.  Mother F'N son of a B.

I restarted my addons up, put my graphics back up and logged back in knowing it was nothing what so ever on my side.  It was their crappy cross realm zones.  I put my need more help ticket in this time and I held no punches.

I have done everything you asked.  I am still crashing and I am still lagging.  Put my on my server.  Now.  I don't give a crap if you think cross realm zones are the best thing since sliced bread, they suck and I do not want to be on one.  Put me on my server now.  I am sick of you asking me to do things when it doesn't work because cross realm servers were not ready for release.

I get a mail back near instantly.  Kind of funny how I was online and the GM did not talk to me at all.  He just replied and I got the little message pop up.  Perhaps that is for the best, I really would have not had any kind words for him at all.

His response?  Try resetting your UI, follow the instructions below.

Nope, not doing it, not even going to pretend to do it.  Just put me back on my server.  This cross realm zone thing has to go, at least make it optional so I can say no and start playing the game again.

Next response, if you have a suggestion you can go to the forums and make it here and he gave me the link.

You stupid piece of shit.  It is not a suggestion.  Take me off the cross zone realm.  There is no suggestion in what I said there.  I am not asking for the option I am telling you I do not want to be a part of it.  What about that don't you understand?

I've received no reply since then.  I doubt I will.  They were actually very good with me trying to fix the error they created.  It just bugged me that they did not do the one thing that could have really fixed it.  Put me back on my server, the same one I paid to be on over four years ago and have not had any problems with ever.

There is a reason I was on that server, because it was smaller than my other server.  That is why I paid to be on that server.  That is why I do not play on the other server even if I still have three mostly unplayed now characters over there.  It was too crowded, there was lag and I could name a dozen other reasons, some even of a selfish nature like gathering and such, why I wanted to be on a smaller server.  None of that matters however.

What matters is I pay to be on the server I am on and they are not giving me what I paid for.  They moved me from a stable server with no issues and force me unto an unstable server with many technical issues using a new feature that is broken and should not have been released yet.

Easy fix, just make the cross realm zones optional.  If I do not want to get thrown on to another server, for whatever my reasons might be, allow me to stay on my own server.

I am not asking for anything special.  All I am asking for is the ability to play the game I pay to play and I can't do that now with the cross realm zone.

Is it too much to ask to be able to play a game I pay to play?  I don't think so.

Make cross realm zones optional.

I will choose the option to play if there was an option and that would mean I would not participate in cross realm zones as I can not play on them.  I should have that right.  I should be allowed to make that choice.  I pay for the ability to play and I should be able to play.  Seems fair to me.

Don't give up on blizzard.  We pay for the right to play.  Do not let them force cross realm zones on us.  Keep putting in tickets so we can get back on to our nice stable servers.  We deserve that because we pay for that.  So put in your tickets on every character every day and ask to be able to disable cross realm zones.

UPDATE:

I finally got a GM to actually talk to me instead of sending me tickets back with information.   I apologized for being frustrated and being rude but I was at my wits end.  He said he understood, it can be frustrating.

He spent a good 15 minutes with me and went over everything step by step.  I told him I did not want to have to go to a full install and he said he would make sure we did everything we could before we had to resort to that.

In the end he came up with an idea of what it might be and told me that many other people have had the same exact problem I am having.  It seems my internet service provider and the new patch are not getting along well.  While he could not give me a solution he was aware of the problem and told me they are working on it.

He also told me that he would pass along my displeasure for the CRZs and told me to not blame them for everything.  The 134 errors and some of the others could have been from that but the majority of the issues are because of the provider and the game not communicating well.

That was all I wanted.  Someone to actually address the problem and to understand I was upset with the patch.  Goes to show you that sometimes the GMs should take a few minutes to talk to people instead of just replying with tickets.

One person talked to me and that one person figured out what the problem was.  It is nice to see there are a few GMs that do their job well and help people.  So in the end, it was the CRZ and it was not the CRZ.  It was the CRZ coding and my internet provider that are not communicating which is causing the problem.  I would give the GMs name, but I'll just say thank you to him, he knows who he is and I doubt he would ever read this anyway.