Today in WoW: Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011
by Adam Holisky 
Aug 9th 2011 at 9:30PM
Don't forget to check out The Daily Quest and our Weekly Podcast Roundup to find out what else is going on in the WoW community. And if you have a news tip, feel free to drop us a line and let us know.
Blue posts
New fan wallpaper
We have just updated World of Warcraft Fan Wallpapers section with a new wallpaper titled "Cataclysm" by Shock.
Art gallery update
We've updated our Trading Card Game art gallery to feature ten new pieces. Each image is taken directly from the official World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Be sure to give a shout-out to your favorite pieces in the comments
More characters per account/server
It has always been a matter of efficiency in data service. Much like the fabrication of a commercial airplane, the design of the server side of a service like World of Warcraft affects what can be provided to the players for as long as that service is being used.
With an airplane, you can conceivably add more seats inside. You can squeeze more people in there, to a point. But you can't (easily) expand the hull to make room for more seats. Over the long run, if the airline wants to accommodate more people, they add more planes to the route, or replace an existing plane with a larger plane that has room for more seats.
This request - which is heard loud and clear, by the way - is like asking the airline to simultaneously increase the number of passengers that can be carried on every plane in their fleet. Can it be done? Absolutely. It may be something that we are able to do, and soon. It may not be, because providing reliable data service is extremely important to us.
With an airplane, you can conceivably add more seats inside. You can squeeze more people in there, to a point. But you can't (easily) expand the hull to make room for more seats. Over the long run, if the airline wants to accommodate more people, they add more planes to the route, or replace an existing plane with a larger plane that has room for more seats.
This request - which is heard loud and clear, by the way - is like asking the airline to simultaneously increase the number of passengers that can be carried on every plane in their fleet. Can it be done? Absolutely. It may be something that we are able to do, and soon. It may not be, because providing reliable data service is extremely important to us.
WoW news from other sites
- None today!
- The WoW Insider Show: Episode 205
- Race to World First documentary releasing soon
- Totem Talk: Revisiting restoration's optional talents
- MMO Roundup: North Korean MMO hackers and more
- Blood Sport: Having fun in the arena
- Lichborne: 3 quick tips to step up your death knight's game
- Jaina Proudmoore working book title: Tides of War
- Reader UI of the Week: Working with non-widescreen monitors
- WoW Insider's Weekly Webcomic: Safe Passage
- WoW Archivist: The Emerald Dream, Outland, and other Z-axis secrets
- The Queue: 5,000 feet
- Titles Tell Stories: How "Mists of Pandaria" breaks the mold
- Tuesday Morning Post: Panda skeptics edition
- PS3 firmware 3.7 brings auto cloud saves and Trophy sync (for PS Plus members)
- id Software looking to shorten dev cycles, stop building new engines for every game
- Video: Modern Warfare 3's new Spec Ops "Survival" mode
Filed under: Today in WoW
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MusedMoose Aug 9th 2011 9:49PM
I have to say, I like the explanation for the more characters per account/server thing. Naturally, I'd love to have more characters per server, as I'm an altaholic and would like to have a few extra slots to try things out. But what Kaivax said makes sense.
My theory - which cannot be backed up in any way, shape, or form - is that if we get a new hero class in a future expansion, we'll get more character slots. There's currently 10 classes and 10 slots, and I'm sure there are people out there who wouldn't want to delete a character just to make a new hero class, probably quite a few. I've no doubt Blizzard is aware of this, hence the theory. Here's hoping I'm right. ^_^
Arrohon Aug 9th 2011 10:19PM
"It may be something that we are able to do, and soon."
Sounds like they are working on but they can't confirm it. If they say no, more QQ. If they say yes and can't do it, more QQ. It's likely a goal for the next expansion and one we're all very likely hopeful for. Now if only they could'vesaid it without saying soon...
MusedMoose Aug 9th 2011 10:30PM
@ Arrohon -
Yeah, I thought that too, that they may be trying to implement it in the next expansion. But obviously they can't say for sure until they know they can make it work.
And I'm totally used to Blizzard's "Soon(TM)" by now. ^_^
Devin Aug 9th 2011 11:13PM
@Arrohon
Let's be honest though; if they can, and manage to deliver, more QQ. "We want TWELVE+ characters per realm!".
bdew Aug 10th 2011 7:56AM
Anyone wants to bet that when they open the possibility it will come as buying extra character slots for $?
Antt Aug 10th 2011 2:15AM
Now I'm not a programmer or anything like that, but when we are talking about characters per realm, to me, the analogy of making a plane bigger to fit more seats just makes no sense at all - I understand that you can't make a plane bigger etc, but when you log on to your account you don't play all 10 toons at once. you still only play one at a time i.e. when one 'passenger' gets off another get's on and therefore the need for 'seats' remains the same.
Although it does make sense for accounts per realm.
I am a hopeless altoholic, I have 9 out of 10 classes at 85 with my Shammy at 84 - so if/when Blizz brings in another class I am going to have to go to a different realm just to play it. I haven't seriously rolled a Worgen yet because it will have to be on a different realm.
Zapwidget Aug 10th 2011 2:54AM
Except that when you log off of one character, that character does not simply cease to exist. To further the airplane analogy, sure, he might get off the plane and leave an open seat, but his luggage is still in the cargo hold.
Chance Aug 10th 2011 3:50AM
Back in the late 90s I was a coder on an MMO. We had a tool for players to save outfit sets for their characters, it would save them all in lines of code unseen by the players on their accounts. Some players saved hundreds of outfits onto their account leading to other data being lost for their characters and an overall lag on our servers. We decided it was best to limit the amount of outfits they could save to avoid this happening to more people in the future.
Now I know WoW is leaps and bounds beyond what the game I was working with was at the time, however, I'm relatively sure its a similar issue. Each character you have on a server is data stored on the game server. Not just a name, but thousands of lines of code for every quest completed, acheivment earned, piece of gold earned, and every item you have in your inventory. While I don't see the exact technical issue with letting people have 1 more character per server seeing as there are thousands of new accounts added daily with a potential of 10 characters each, I do understand there are aspects of their coding that I will never grasp and don't question their judgement calls with things like this. Some things that seem overly simple to us as players tend to be some of the most complicated issues for programmers.
andrews Aug 11th 2011 6:04PM
I completely agree. This is a completely bogus excuse. Only one toon is flying at once, no new seat is needed. They may need more storage, but storage is (relatively) cheap.
andrews Aug 11th 2011 6:09PM
Data can be stored very compactly, even in a poor format like the example mentioned. Your bags might be in the bottom of the plain, but they only take up square inches of space since they are digital.
Barno Aug 10th 2011 6:31AM
Or better yet get some easy listening happening. Put some Burt Bacharach on and mellow out, sip a martini, just put your feet up. Tune all that directionless anger and noise out and just chill.
Nobody really listens to heavy metal after they lose their viginity anyway.
Greg Aug 10th 2011 7:10AM
Can we find a different picture to use for articles?
It's getting difficult to tell if I've read these or not because the same image keeps getting reused.
PaulC Aug 10th 2011 7:33AM
Barno,
I love you man.
GEZUS Aug 10th 2011 11:07AM
Now that's Innovation! LoL..Not.