PvE v PvP

Hmm, just heard that those of us that primarily play PvE RULE THE WORLD!  Ok, well maybe not, but it is interesting to see that Blizzard’s ploy of catering to the casual player (also the majority of players) has become successful.  Sadly, over the last few months I have started to see the queue more and more often.  It helps that I usually log on before or after primetime, not during, but still…  So then I start questioning what will really work to fix the problem they’ve been trying to create…

1.      A new PvE server.  Well, this somewhat helps.  You’ll get transfers from overpops and you’ll get ‘local’ newbs on it.  But how many transfers are you going to get?  You’ll get the ones and twos that are tired of their guild or the players on the server, you’ll get some randoms, but I doubt you’re going to get a large guild to transfer over all of their mains.  It’s not going to be a mass exodus.  Not to mention, the server will fill up soon anyway and we’ll again have this problem.  But since this does somewhat work, Bliz is goin with it.  More power to ya!



2.      PvE to PvP transfers.  Well, Bliz has started this already and I think it helps work.  I mean, many people want to play on a PvP server, but they don’t want to put up with the hassle of leveling on a PvP server – they just want to play.  So this one helps too.  Again, good on Bliz!



3.      New Server-Side mechanics.  Find a way to make the servers work in parallel and increase the capacity for bandwidth and processing.  This would work, if it were possible.  You can only really make the pipe so big.  Not to mention the coding necessary…



4.      Increase the number of mini-servers within a cluster.  (Quickly scan to the bottom if you aren’t sure how Bliz’s servers operate and what I’m referencing).  In other words, add a few zones to each zone.  For example, if Dalaran sits on one server right now, add 3 and turn it into 4… 1 for the sewers, one for the horde section, one for the middle/neutral and one for the alliance.  Would that mean we have a lag-pause when moving from section to section?  Yes.  Would it mean people like me who get 0-20 fraps can actually move in Dalaran?  Yes.  Of course, I don’t expect Bliz to do this because I can’t even begin to imagine the cost of adding that many servers!  Not to mention the coding that goes with it…



5.      Build the next expansion properly (and continually add PvE servers).  They need to continually add servers because the playerbase continually grows.  This one is obvious.  But they really need to learn their lesson on adding expansions.  Yes, Shattrath was a mistake.  They didn’t realize the influx of players from the expansion, how everyone would hop into Hellfire Peninsula together, and how everyone would hit Shatt together.  And then that Shatt was going to be the major hub of the game.  Lots of players forced into 1 area = mass lag.  D’uh.

   So with WotLK they somewhat learned their lesson.  2 starting areas!  Now when they opened the flood gates, everyone split and took 2 different paths.  Half the lag!!!  Until everyone found a friend in Dalaran (such as a mage, or through the battlefield trick) or hit 74 themselves.  Hmm, sounds like Shattrath and how Dalaran is the major hub now…  Too bad they didn’t learn from their mistakes last time.

   
   So next time, make a better city.  I know we’re in a weak, temporary, quasi-alliance with the horde, but do we have to bunk with them?  Let’s see…  Make it almost 3 cities.  Alliance on one side, Horde on the other, and neutral vendors in the middle.  Give us each our own inns, give us each our own specialty vendors (come on, not all are going to be neutral!), and let the vendors out there to make a profit from both sides sit in the middle.  Then, put it on 3 servers instead of 1.  Also, give us back our auction houses and put portals in all the major cities to all the major cities.  Come on, if we can make a portal to one place, we can make one back, can’t we?

   
   Yes, adding an auction house to the new hub means we don’t need to visit the old-world cities to use an AH.  Thus killing bliz’ idea of spreading out the players that way.  But we all set our hearth to the major hub because that’s the fastest way of getting anywhere we want to go.  So if I could set my hearth in Darnassus because I had all the same portals and amenities as in Dalaran…  You bet I would!  Much less lag, rather pretty, and I can still get where I’m going.  I mean, sure, keep specific things in certain places (such as certain trainers – the best Mage traners would go to Dalaran, best Druid trainers to Darnassus, etc.).  That only makes sense.  But give us freedom to roam the world (that’s the reason for mounts not moving faster, but I won’t get into that now).  I have the explorer title – I’ve seen most of the (WoW) world, now let me get where I’m going faster!

So no, I don’t consider this 61734 (pager code) or complaint, rather just noticing that lag and queues suck, but Bliz is doing what they can.  I mean, even if they had the $Billions it’d take to re-do the server networks, it’d still take months to do.  Months which would be better spent on a new (more well thought out) expansion for us!  Now I just need to find a way to get them to pay me $100k per year to play WoW and make suggestions on how to improve it or tell them how to do their jobs…  Muahahaha!!!!

 

 

**WoW Servers…  Yes, you pick a “server” to start a character.  For example, Nazgrel.  But it’s really a Cluster of Servers that you are picking.  Within Nazgrel, there are servers for each zone, city, instance, etc.  There’s even a server dedicated to things such as inventory, cash, achievements, etc.  This is why you experience some lag (or even a loading screen) when moving between zones.  Moving from Stormwind to the forest you won’t even notice a pause.  But going into Kara you’ll see a loading screen.  In both cases you’re actually jumping onto a different server essentially.