Medivh looks set to be the first WoW realm to open the gates of Ahn'Qiraj, and like many of us who've been enjoying the buildup, n3rfed is anticipating an interesting result:
Recent days have seen a flood of level 1 alts on Medivh as players from other servers make the pilgrimage to Sithilus in order to watch Ahn'Qiraj finally open. Additionally, the wait queue of this previously modestly-populated server has multiplied to over 500 and new guilds going by such names of "OPEN TEH GATE", "Aq Opens" and "Get In Queue Please" have swelled in their ranks.
Heheh. As much as I'd like to hold out to see the openage on my own server, if it all comes off properly on Medivh the video will be unmissable.
Oh, god. When servers were all first triggering the world event in Moonglade for this, several servers crashed because of how many people were flocking there to see the big event. I can just imagine Medivh dying if all those people try to gather to watch the gates open.
Posted by: Melissa Della | January 17, 2006 at 13:05
Seems to me that Blizz have got their design for world events totally wrong. The per-server model just means they run the risk of destroying the experience for everyone involved. Why they couldn't lock the server down for a week before the event is beyond me.
Posted by: Seb Potter | January 17, 2006 at 16:49
World events like this seemed to me the big thing WoW was lacking, but if the servers can't handle them...
Posted by: Vincent | January 17, 2006 at 18:45
As a longtime resident of Medivh, the ever-increasing queue times has been the least of the frustrations as we near the opening of the gates.
An incomplete list of gripes:
Second (and Nth) place servers posting grief in our forums
Daily grief from sub 10 players in Silithus in tells and world channels
WoW's inaction in dealing with the grief
Insane object, mail, and AH delays
The inability to complete some world events (Eranikus) due to lag and player death related buffs.
But mostly, as Seb pointed out above, that Blizzard didn't lock down "cross-server alt creation" on the 1.9 publish is shocking. I'm sure it would have been more than possible to detect a new subscriber and allow creation anywhere, yet still lock down people jumping onto other servers.
Posted by: Mojo | January 17, 2006 at 21:27
Mojo, I sympathize with your server residents' plight, but you do realize that there are legitimate reasons to create a cross-server alt, right? I have legitimate alts on three different servers (mostly because I found out after I had been playing for a while that a friend of mine was playing on a different server).
As for locking down servers before world events, I think they'd rather run the risk of temporarily pissing off long-standing subscribers rather than pissing of brand-new subscribers (still in the trial period), who plunked down money for a game and just found out that they can't join the server that all their friends are on.
Posted by: Infomofo | January 17, 2006 at 21:41
Infomofo, I'm not talking about removing the ability to make cross-server alts entirely, just for the few days leading up to a big world event when it's obvious to absolutely everyone concerned that a massive influx of players destroys not only the experience of the event, but all gameplay on a server.
Even on a medium load server such as Runetotem there's a considerable amount of lag during peak hours. The idea of waiting in a queue for hours to just join a server is intolerable.
Posted by: Seb Potter | January 17, 2006 at 22:45
Seb, that sounds pretty reasonable. I think that locking down cross-server-alts before or during big events is something they should do in the future. I wonder if this whole thing will have long-lasting server effects on Medivh.
Posted by: Infomofo | January 17, 2006 at 22:49
Indeed, I don't think Seb or myself is saying "stop alt creation" entirely. I had to change to Medivh myself once I found that my co-workers were playing there - 3 months ago.
I don't know what the best possible solution is, but I can tell you that last night I sat through a 1,000 person queue that took over 1 hour. Sure, I took the dogs out, made dinner, made lunch for the next day, did dishes, and fed the dogs. But that kind of wait time just to _play_ is ridiculous.
Medivh now has players named "icrashmedivh", "getinqueue", and the like. They abuse they spew towards the residents is incedible. More importantly, it's clear that their intentions are not to legitimately change servers and play with their friends.
The fact that the major guilds have said over and over that screnshots and videos will be widely available hasn't dissuaded anyone from making the pilgrimage to Silithus.
The revolution will be televised.
Posted by: Mojo | January 18, 2006 at 17:02