How does Blizzard decide upon server migrations?

Bizanich · 06-15-2006, 10:15 AM

Getting bored with the threads on here, no new ones, so /rolls dice

Reason I ask is about the servers is this. I used to play, and still pop onto occasionally, Stormreaver, one of the original PvP servers and imho one of the best. It had an Alliance edge as a lot of the original PvP servers did, but the server was still mostly balanced. Queues for BG's weren't horrendous, both sides had raiding guilds taking down C'thun, Ouro, etc., easily....

Problem is Stormreaver is big, or was, population wise and lag was horrendous and it wasn't on the magical new hardware that cures cancer.

So, Stormreaver is given another transfer this week (the servers second in its history) to a new server, Korgath..along with two other servers, some with known guilds who probably have readers here as well.

Korgath gets swamped. Many Horde guilds immediately bail on Stormreaver, way more then the first transfer, destroying what was a very good PvP balance. Alliance guilds are starting to follow since it killed a lot of the BG competition, so an inoridinate amount of people in insane gear are swarming Korgoth who didn't have guilds that were nearly as far PvE or PvP wise.

Remember, Stormreaver still hadn't gotten new hardware yet :/.

Death and Taxes, Drama, and Insomniacs also swarm onto Korgath from their servers, and some of Stormreavers Alliance guilds that are pissed off are now also leaving....

I have no idea how many from Warsong and Shattered Hand are also moving onto Korgath, but that place might get packed very very quickly.

Are there any controls that go into these moves? Stormreaver is now barren on the Horde side and its hurt a lot of the gamers experiences on the server.

Kasonic · 06-15-2006, 10:32 AM

They need to start merging low-pop servers with some research done on faction balance and PvE progression in mind. A lot of older servers are turning into barren wastelands, either through quits/rerolls or transfers, and more transfers only create more.

Bizanich · 06-15-2006, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kasonic

They need to start merging low-pop servers with some research done on faction balance and PvE progression in mind. A lot of older servers are turning into barren wastelands, either through quits/rerolls or transfers, and more transfers only create more.

Research something. I just think it's embarrassing for Blizzard since as the snowball picks up speed, more transfer from the server.

I moved my guys off 'Reaver just BECAUSE others moved and I didn't want to someday return to a barren server.

Just seems like an unprofessional decision to have 3 ---> 1 and ignore how geared each realm is, how far, effects on the previous servers..

Only highlight has been the bitching when some native of Korgath ran into a transferee with a Dark Edge of Insanity (soul edge ripoff).

Ziggurat · 06-15-2006, 10:41 AM

my server has an excellent racial balance and is very active in pvp, but I would give it all up to get rid of the lag which kills our raids. we've simply become complacent with the 500-750 pings on emps (and chrom/nef, last fall) and it is not unusual to sit outside c'thuns room for 20-30 minutes to wait out the 1+ minute chat lag.

in ending, who gives a shit about horde:alliance balance when the server is too lagged to support a modicum of playability?

Bizanich · 06-15-2006, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ziggurat

in ending, who gives a shit about horde:alliance balance when the server is too lagged to support a modicum of playability?

I actually agree to an extent, but it would seem the best option would be to upgrade the hardware on old, full servers first before wrecking the community (yes there is one).

That and some people on PvP servers do play to PvP, so you have to give a shit about the balance. It's irresponsible not to.

Antarius · 06-15-2006, 12:23 PM

I ended up moving my character to Korgath for the same reasons that you listed Bizanich, even though I don't play him anymore. Who knows, maybe on Korgath I'll be able to find a late night raiding guild where I can raid while working a swing shift at work, it certainly wasn't going to ever happen on Stormreaver, where every single guild raided at like 6pm cst. Especially with a large percentage of the horde population leaving.

Akileese · 06-15-2006, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kasonic

They need to start merging low-pop servers with some research done on faction balance and PvE progression in mind. A lot of older servers are turning into barren wastelands, either through quits/rerolls or transfers, and more transfers only create more.

After the first transfer from Bleeding Hollow, almost all the guilds left. After the second one, it's 60 FPS in Org all the time. Probably 60-70 people in org on peak time as oppose to like, double that. BH now needs to be merged with another server because theres no PVE guilds left. All of the PVE guilds left because of the lag (I think one or two nef guilds may be left).

Kodylan · 06-16-2006, 01:02 AM

All I know is Kilrogg is in worse shape than before the recent round of migrations. Last night I literally ran across Searing Gorge with no mobs up and wondered "uh, what the fuck...no mobs?" then realized I still hadn't looted the mageweave off the mob I'd killed about 5 minutes previously.

Tingteng · 06-16-2006, 01:05 AM

like 4 of the top 5 horde guilds left warsong for korgath.

GG warsong you peice of crap server.

Desx · 06-16-2006, 01:20 AM

stormreaver will pick back up. People will realize that transferring was stupid and will remake characters again. Espescially when stormreaver gets its new hardware before expansion.

Derketo · 06-16-2006, 11:07 AM

Basically blizzard pays no attention to faction balance when doing transfers. This is purely population readjustment. With 1.12 and xserver bg's looming things like how many horde/alliance are on each server becomes moot. What is an issue is these bigger servers having too many people in general, causing major lag issues/unplayability.

That being said, we (Drama) moved for several reasons. One of which was bg queue times until 1.12 hits. We had 30m-1h queues on sh, which is acceptable even, however when we would get in a game every horde guild on the server would /afk. It was not unusual for us to go days or even weeks without ever actually playing a real game. The other big factor for us was the unplayable lag that would make raiding a tedious affair.

Mist · 06-16-2006, 12:06 PM

Warsong lost ALL major horde guilds, Insomniacs, Manic and dark praetors. Not really a huge deal, since Insomniacs and Manic never PvPed anymore, but dark praetors still had a large active PvP core. Now theres 2 C'thun guilds on Alliance, soon to be 3 most likely, and 0 horde guilds past Huhuran.

Nakilos · 06-16-2006, 01:21 PM

Similar thing happened to the horde on my server. A couple guilds moved on the first transfer, and then on the second transfer the top horde guild transfered off along with 2 alliance guilds. On the Alliance side its still mostly ok, but horde took a rather substantial hit. Orgrimmar is a ghost town, queues are very long on the Alliance side because of it.

You know, maybe they need to institute some kind of temporary faction specific ban on character creation on servers where you don't already have characters on if only to hopefully encourage people to make characters to try to balance the population somewhat. Alternatively, future transfers need to be faction specific, Alliance or Horde, just to keep it relatively close.

On a side note the top horde guild who transfered recently broke up on the new server, and part of the problem was the lack of a decent pool of people to deal with the turnover of a raiding guild. People should probably consider, its not just the top or established guilds that move, but shitty players and people trying to escape bad reputations that move also.

Bongk · 06-16-2006, 01:59 PM

heads or tails? Enie, meanie, minie moe? Throw a dart at the dartboard?

Wait I know!!!

Just like a county fair in some hick rural area, they set up squares with each servers name and see which ones the cow craps on!!

Yermum Onceme · 06-16-2006, 02:02 PM

it's the worst most horrible solution ever... but it'll work...

they need queues to be faction specific!

06-15-2006, 10:15 AM	#1 (permalink)
Bizanich Face the mighty Bison Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 3,238 +18 Internets	How does Blizzard decide upon server migrations? Getting bored with the threads on here, no new ones, so /rolls dice Reason I ask is about the servers is this. I used to play, and still pop onto occasionally, Stormreaver, one of the original PvP servers and imho one of the best. It had an Alliance edge as a lot of the original PvP servers did, but the server was still mostly balanced. Queues for BG's weren't horrendous, both sides had raiding guilds taking down C'thun, Ouro, etc., easily.... Problem is Stormreaver is big, or was, population wise and lag was horrendous and it wasn't on the magical new hardware that cures cancer. So, Stormreaver is given another transfer this week (the servers second in its history) to a new server, Korgath..along with two other servers, some with known guilds who probably have readers here as well. Korgath gets swamped. Many Horde guilds immediately bail on Stormreaver, way more then the first transfer, destroying what was a very good PvP balance. Alliance guilds are starting to follow since it killed a lot of the BG competition, so an inoridinate amount of people in insane gear are swarming Korgoth who didn't have guilds that were nearly as far PvE or PvP wise. Remember, Stormreaver still hadn't gotten new hardware yet :/. Death and Taxes, Drama, and Insomniacs also swarm onto Korgath from their servers, and some of Stormreavers Alliance guilds that are pissed off are now also leaving.... I have no idea how many from Warsong and Shattered Hand are also moving onto Korgath, but that place might get packed very very quickly. Are there any controls that go into these moves? Stormreaver is now barren on the Horde side and its hurt a lot of the gamers experiences on the server. Last edited by Bizanich; 06-15-2006 at 10:18 AM..

06-16-2006, 01:05 AM	#9 (permalink)
Tingteng Thread Killer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Portland,OR Posts: 1,272 -14 Internets	like 4 of the top 5 horde guilds left warsong for korgath. GG warsong you peice of crap server. __________________

06-16-2006, 11:07 AM	#11 (permalink)
Derketo Salty Lumberjack Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 181 +0 Internets	Basically blizzard pays no attention to faction balance when doing transfers. This is purely population readjustment. With 1.12 and xserver bg's looming things like how many horde/alliance are on each server becomes moot. What is an issue is these bigger servers having too many people in general, causing major lag issues/unplayability. That being said, we (Drama) moved for several reasons. One of which was bg queue times until 1.12 hits. We had 30m-1h queues on sh, which is acceptable even, however when we would get in a game every horde guild on the server would /afk. It was not unusual for us to go days or even weeks without ever actually playing a real game. The other big factor for us was the unplayable lag that would make raiding a tedious affair. __________________ I'll be alright when we get to pass out time.

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06-15-2006, 10:32 AM	#2 (permalink)
Kasonic dumb Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 2,627 +1 Internets	They need to start merging low-pop servers with some research done on faction balance and PvE progression in mind. A lot of older servers are turning into barren wastelands, either through quits/rerolls or transfers, and more transfers only create more.

06-15-2006, 10:41 AM	#4 (permalink)
Ziggurat Oldschool Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 345 +5 Internets	my server has an excellent racial balance and is very active in pvp, but I would give it all up to get rid of the lag which kills our raids. we've simply become complacent with the 500-750 pings on emps (and chrom/nef, last fall) and it is not unusual to sit outside c'thuns room for 20-30 minutes to wait out the 1+ minute chat lag. in ending, who gives a shit about horde:alliance balance when the server is too lagged to support a modicum of playability?

06-16-2006, 01:02 AM	#8 (permalink)
Kodylan Registered User Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 2,255 -1 Internets	All I know is Kilrogg is in worse shape than before the recent round of migrations. Last night I literally ran across Searing Gorge with no mobs up and wondered "uh, what the fuck...no mobs?" then realized I still hadn't looted the mageweave off the mob I'd killed about 5 minutes previously.

06-16-2006, 01:20 AM	#10 (permalink)
Desx Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 549	stormreaver will pick back up. People will realize that transferring was stupid and will remake characters again. Espescially when stormreaver gets its new hardware before expansion.

06-16-2006, 01:21 PM	#13 (permalink)
Nakilos Registered User Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 1,591 -1 Internets	Similar thing happened to the horde on my server. A couple guilds moved on the first transfer, and then on the second transfer the top horde guild transfered off along with 2 alliance guilds. On the Alliance side its still mostly ok, but horde took a rather substantial hit. Orgrimmar is a ghost town, queues are very long on the Alliance side because of it. You know, maybe they need to institute some kind of temporary faction specific ban on character creation on servers where you don't already have characters on if only to hopefully encourage people to make characters to try to balance the population somewhat. Alternatively, future transfers need to be faction specific, Alliance or Horde, just to keep it relatively close. On a side note the top horde guild who transfered recently broke up on the new server, and part of the problem was the lack of a decent pool of people to deal with the turnover of a raiding guild. People should probably consider, its not just the top or established guilds that move, but shitty players and people trying to escape bad reputations that move also.

06-16-2006, 01:59 PM	#14 (permalink)
Bongk On The Neverending MMOG Merry-Go-Round Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Chicago Posts: 1,517	heads or tails? Enie, meanie, minie moe? Throw a dart at the dartboard? Wait I know!!! Just like a county fair in some hick rural area, they set up squares with each servers name and see which ones the cow craps on!!

06-16-2006, 02:02 PM	#15 (permalink)
Yermum Onceme Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: PA Posts: 1,690 +0 Internets	it's the worst most horrible solution ever... but it'll work... they need queues to be faction specific!