More and more people nowadays seem to be posting that they're finding it hard to get groups (other than the endgame) and I wondered if it's time to start merging or shutting down realms?

I can only speak from my own play experience on the realms that I have characters on:

Earthern Ring
Really populated at the endgame Outlands zones, but on recently dinging 70 and flying back to Honor Hold to get the Shattered Halls quests I was shocked to see no one there - I mean the whole zone seemed to be deserted.

I've not got any alts on this server apart from this main (well I have a 14 who I never play) so I can't speak for the earlier zones - whenever I pass through them they seem deserted.

I know that ER is an old server, so I guess most characters would be concentrated at the end-game.. but I'd hate to start a new character on this server, I have to admit.

Steamwheedle Cartel
I'm levelling my main alt here, a 55 human priest and again much the same story though not as bad as ER

The starting areas have a few people in, but not much... levelling my priest the 45+ areas are nearly deserted with hardly any instance runs - everyone seems to be solo grinding to get to Outlands.

Most of the time the characters you see levelling up are draenei and belves - about half I'd say.

I have no idea what Outlands is like on this realm, but certainly less and less people seem to be levelling nowadays.

The Sha-tar
A new server, still seems pretty empty when I play it.

Darkmoon Faire
Have some belves all around 20 - seems pretty fine even at low levels and feels a nice server to me and still alive in the pre-Outland zones.

What about everyone else?

Do you think that a lot of the realms need to merge?

Would Blizzard re-doing the old 1-58 content bring new life back into Azeroth?

Or is it that we need - gasp - new realms?

I'm just curious...

Problem is, that even if it loosk empty, there can be loads of people in there. And new servers would only create more of the same :|

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Eleutheria, I would say that I am meeting less known faces on ER than before.. dunno, it can be somehow connected with Shattrath City instead of IF afking place, but still... Outside I am not meeting too much known faces. Yeah, mostly in front of Karazhan... and in Aldor bank.. but nowhere else...

I have been lvling with my friend ... my lock and her shaman on ER. It wasnt as bad as it looks, we actualy found ppl for runs, but from lvl44-58 we needed guildies to help us with runs.

Of course realms can be merged, but yes about the name clashing I guess you can change your name then.

Darksorrow seems to be lower populated then it used to be aswell, although I mean that more towards finding people for raiding guilds. Almost every guild is in need for some players.

Maybe some realms should be merged yes :)

yes and what if you're merging several pvp realms and you have alliance characters on one and horde on another? and what if you have 5 chars on one server and 7 on another?

OK, when I say 'merging realms' I mean really:

- announcing that a low pop realm is closing
- and providing 3-4 realms to migrate to for free

I guess the discussion I was trying to provoke was not:

HOW you would merge realms

but more:

DOES Blizzard need to merge realms/close some down?

Are a lot of realms becoming de-populated for whatever reason?

Or are most fine with inevitably a lot of people who used to level up alts when their main was bored at 60 and who are now happily playing the end game - hence less toons being levelled up?

Aim was not to praise or take aim at Blizzard - I was just curious as to what people thought.

Merging realms would allow "new" servers to be started while old/deserted servers are populated. You could argue that the economy of servers would be ruined from merges, but it will recover itself within a matter of months. While a population problem doesn't really tend to solve itself.

Some kind of solution is required. i hardly ever see any alliance around. kinda kills the pvp aspect of the game :(

Yes, what would be a good thing for blizzard to do is: make players from a server with a bad Alliance: Horde ratio in favor of the alliance migrate to a server with a bad Alliance:Horde ratio in favor of the horde to balance things out and ofcourse it will fix the desertion of servers aswell, (servers will be emptied and closed to later be reopened as a new realm)

but then again I have no idea about the costs or effort that have to be put into this.

The cases you describe are not in need of realm mergers. A realm does not need merging if the majority of the population are lvl 70. Not being able to find someone for Gnomeregan because the lvl 25-30 characters are few due to not enough alts isn't a call for a realm merger.

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Q u o t e:
Problem is, that even if it loosk empty, there can be loads of people in there. And new servers would only create more of the same :|

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Your signature is pure genius.

on my realm (spinebreaker) there are no groups for SV, SL( or any of the auchidoun instances tbh) same with hellfire citadel-Underbogs/slavepens etc etc. im only lvlv 69, but finding a group here is MURDER! bring back LFG channel at least :(

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Q u o t e:

I definitely agree on the observation that it can be hard to find groups at lower levels on older realms, but this does in no way mean the population on the realm is low. In addition to not many new players starting there those leveling up alts are sometimes rushing, having guild mates (or their own main on a different account) pull them through quests and instances. On younger (young, but not brand new) realms many might be busy leveling their first character, and thus alts are not that numerous yet, while the realm is old enough for the initial rush of low-level characters to be over.

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IMO there are loads of alts that wont do instances because those players have seen the same dungeons for atleast a dozen times. Atleast this is the case with me, I played, with a few pauses, from the very beginning. If I make an alt now days, I will ask guildies to help, or not do a dungeon at all.

Funny thing is that last july, with the scourge invasion, I loved doing instance runs and check out the event bosses. In my case this simply means that I am getting bored with the old instances. This might be with a larger group of players, causing more and more alts not to go to lower level instances.

Also on realms with a low horde or alliance population these issue's are even bigger. If there are 850 people on one side online at one time, and a large portion is level 70, then getting groups for lower levels is just a pain in the backside.

@Thundgot

You guys have got all the figures, so I guess I'll believe you :)

I can well believe that most people on the older realms are playing their mains i.e. most active characters are 60+ - it's certainly my experience on ER.

As for a solution to this, I think that re-doing the old 1-60 content would help a lot and make Azeroth a fun exciting place to level up in again for old players.

Of course the old WoW was great - but levelling up in TBC is much nicer, so it would be good to see the 2+ years of experience that was applied to TBC re-applied to the old WoW zones, items and dungeons.

I'm a casual player and I'm not about to get seriously into TBC raiding, maybe I'll just do a few heroics and a bit of Kara - but would I go back and level up my draenei and belf chars 20-58 doing re-itemized old instances and older raids (if they're easier than TBC raids that is)? YES!

But of course you guys can't do everything at once - but I'd love to see the patch after this re-do the old game :)

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Q u o t e:
bring back LFG channel at least

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!!