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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe plague of the reroll locusts
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Apr 25th 2007 at 12:13PM
If you ever visit the WoW forums on a daily basis, you'll notice that a large portion of the posts are people asking, begging, wheedling and whining about their wish for new servers. These posts have gotten so bad that Blizzard has now classified "new server plz" posts as spam and threatened to ban posters from the forums. But even so, you can see "Are there new servers today?!?!?!?!", "New realms: Why they are needed" and "Perfect time to release new realms!"
Blizzard has said that they don't plan to release any new realms until the current servers are overpopulated -- and with the large number of "dying" low-pop realms, this doesn't seem to be on the agenda anytime soon. But many of the rerollers say they don't care that newly released realms will become low-population -- they just want a "fresh start" so they can get server firsts. Devonw, who starts a number of the threads, has rerolled seven times on new servers, oddly enough with mostly night elf females. This has led to the popularization of the term "reroll locusts." The locusts demand a new server to start anew on, roll a character there, and in a few months when it becomes a low-population server, desert en masse to call for yet another new server, leaving the old server a barren wasteland.
I've got to say that the attitude of many of the reroll locusts has turned me off from supporting their cause. They don't seem to care about any of the low-population realms desperately in need of players, but only about their own need for a new playing field. I do understand the fun of starting out on a brand-new realm, having tried it once myself in the past, but I think Blizzard really has to balance that against concern for the low-population realms, and they've decided in favor of the latter.
What do you think should be done about new realms and low population realms? Do you support new servers, or do you wish the threads would just go away?
Filed under: Realm News, Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Robert Apr 25th 2007 4:19PM
There's nothing unprecedented about server merges. Every other MMO has done them at some point or another. Blizzard knows its possible and very likely has designed the server architecture with merges in mind.
They aren't doing merges because it's a business decision: they want to keep up the appearance of growth. Merging servers would be, in a sense, a demonstration of WoW's aging, and that would be bad for sales.
Baluki Apr 25th 2007 4:23PM
Blizz should just keep doing things the way they are now.
Sorry folks, you don't get your own personal server.
RogueJedi86 Apr 25th 2007 6:05PM
No server merges. Just move some of the high-pop people over to low-pop realms. I'm on Lethon, a low pop PvP realm. I'm sure there's a few high-pop PvP realms that could have people transferred over, even just within our battlegroup. Stop making new realms, and instead try to fill out the ones they already have. If these people want Realm Firsts, then let them go sit by themselves on a private server where they're level 500 and can do everything first, whenever they want. The rest of us are tired of more and more realms being made, when our low-pop ones need filling.
Cassey Apr 25th 2007 7:30PM
Looking at WarcraftRealms.com, its looking a lot better than a month ago in terms of population. IMO, only 3 servers need help, Malev, Onyxia, and Vashj. The rest seem to be slowly increasing in population.
I wouldn't merge them, but open transfers mostly for alliance to those realms. Horde is quite populated, and any more horde will likely push them even further towards horde dominance.
Artaz Apr 25th 2007 7:41PM
Obviously there is a small but vocal group that enjoy getting their server firsts on fresh new servers. I can understand this desire as it is a fun challenge and many enjoy it as their form of play.
However, constantly implementing new servers in the standard format is not a good idea both for Blizzard as a bussiness and for the players as a whole. What they could do though is create one new server and call it the "Reroll server".
Just modify this server so that when it starts it picks a date and time somewhere between say 6 weeks and 12 weeks where it will automatically shutdown, wipe itself and start again. That way all the rerollers have an unknown amount of time to do the best they can, and then, when its over, they get to do it again...and again and ag....ZZzzzzzz
Jack Kelly Apr 25th 2007 11:51PM
They were going to start realm splits when things got overpopulated beyond reason so I think it stands to reason that merges would fit in also.
There's maybe 20 realms that could use it.
barb dybwad Apr 26th 2007 1:17AM
as someone suffering with a main on a low-pop server (Chromaggus reprazent!), i would love, love, soooooo love to see some low-pop servers merged. The problem with forced transfers from high to low is that invariably you'd be leaving behind friends or frequent groupmates that you know -- with a merge, you're still playing with all the same people; there's just lots of new ones to play with also. The problem is sorting out the non-unique names and such, which is non-trivial... but still, god, I would love it.
Bobby Hansen Apr 26th 2007 1:22AM
I'd love a free realm transfer - Medivh is overpacked with level 70's, to a point it's hard to get groups for lower level things.
Lunada Apr 26th 2007 7:07AM
Bliz is right to threaten banning these reroll whinners. To even consider giving giving into their demands to any degree is to strengthen their "its all about me" attitude. These people should just play and enjoy the game; getting server first is a trivial status symbol and to go to such lengths as the reroll whinners do to get them is to show that the only thing that makes them happy is to achieve a task that (in their mind) makes them superior than anyone else. To me these r nothing more than super nerds who wish for the constant high this status symbol brings that last only a couple of months at best.
James Jarvinen Apr 26th 2007 11:00AM
I think Blizzard should open up a new type of 'Locust' server -- a non-persistent realm that wipes every 5-6 months. Characters are given a 2-week window near the end to transfer off if they desire, but otherwise the realm comes back up fresh and ready to go again.
There could be competitions and "time to world first" type longterm statistics to keep track of, and it would appeal to the powergamer locust types that want a shot in the arm every few months to get motivated to play fast, loose, and hard.
the lord of the locusts Jul 9th 2007 4:10PM
I love doing all the lowbie stuff over and over again but doing that means I need to find places with other lowbies, which is why I like new realms. Once a realm is full of lvl 70's nobody wants to do low level stuff unless they are twinks.