So, uh...about that "Cross-Realm Zones" thing...

[Ziarre]

Cross-Realm Zones. We’ll be rolling this feature out beginning with a few realms at the launch of 5.0.4, and increasing until all realms are included for the release of Mists of Pandaria. If you’re looking to level a new character up before Mists of Pandaria, this feature will have a noticeable impact on the world around you.

In other words, you may want to get your pre-MoP camp on. Still won't be all zones, though!

[Kalliope]

Yep!

Got lucky; Poseidus decided to spawn just for me today. <3 That was my last big worry.

[Edanna]

When I first heard about this I turned into a beetroot of fury lol and I'm still un happy as ever I really hate questing the old zones with people around me, because they always take away my kills or pick ups every single damn time haha

I've got all the pets I wanted disband the ones I don't and frankly I'm not even going to bother with poseidus because gw2 is here and also because I just can't be damned getting him to spawn when he probably won't do it anyways, I'd rather see if I like gw2 than worry about 100k gold lol

And I'm totally serious about that!

Let's just hope it's not as bad as everyone thinks its going to be, because I have gone through so many of those and 99% of it wasn't even as bad as I thought it would be, well except the new healing and tanking which I'm not fond of, everything else has turned out ok.

[Kalliope]

I'm kind of hoping for increased spawn timers to compensate for the increased competition.

[Ziarre]

I also think it won't be too terrible, it'll just make camping the rare mounts harder. Rare pets might be a good deal harder after MoP release, but that'll back off to something more sane after the initial rush. We just won't have super-easy nobody-else-in-the-zone camps anymore.

At least it won't be ALL realms until MoP release, which will help people get used to the idea and let them see how it works first-hand.

[Lisaara]

I'm not liking this at all.

[Sukurachi]

I was under the impression that it would only apply to lower-level zones?

[Chimera]

I was under the impression that it would only apply to lower-level zones?

^

They already changed TBC and Northrend group-quests to be individual ones so they'd only need to plop in cross-realm there if they want more people running around armflailing and swearing up and down about how much they hate questing there and how they want to be in MoP already (the complaining about the zones already happens plenty in the already-dead zones)

[Novikova]

I'm not liking this at all.

I gotta go with this. Between the weird phasing issues with it I hear about in beta, and the whole competition for quests, nodes and rares... yeah... sorry, there's a reason I play on a lower to mid pop server. I don't want xxXXDARKARTHASSEPHIROTHXXXxxDBZ guy taking all my spawns, being obnoxious in chat and murderizing rares in front of me. Or heck, taming them out from under me right after I flare one out.

[Vephriel]

We aren't going to see this in Pandaria, and probably not in many higher level areas often, if at all. I believe it's only being implemented in some of the old world zones that feel deserted while leveling.

This is just my opinion, but I kind of miss the feeling of questing through old areas and passing by other people. Working on alts feels like such a lonely venture these days. I understand some people prefer it that way, but I do enjoy the multiplayer aspect of this game, and I remember in Vanilla the way you'd see people no matter what corner of the continent you were in and it was just really neat to me. I think that's all they're trying to do. It's not going to be a super ambitious change that brings crowds to every area, it's just trying to focus on the neglected zones I think that are spread thin in the leveling ranges.

[Ziarre]

I was under the impression that it would only apply to lower-level zones?

I think this is still the case. I hope it's still the case.

In which case I'm...going back to being not concerned. I may have mistaken 'realms' for 'zones.'

[Lisaara]

We aren't going to see this in Pandaria, and probably not in many higher level areas often, if at all. I believe it's only being implemented in some of the old world zones that feel deserted while leveling.

This is just my opinion, but I kind of miss the feeling of questing through old areas and passing by other people. Working on alts feels like such a lonely venture these days. I understand some people prefer it that way, but I do enjoy the multiplayer aspect of this game, and I remember in Vanilla the way you'd see people no matter what corner of the continent you were in and it was just really neat to me. I think that's all they're trying to do. It's not going to be a super ambitious change that brings crowds to every area, it's just trying to focus on the neglected zones I think that are spread thin in the leveling ranges.

If that's the case, then I'll breathe a sigh of relief and not worry about it then. If it was gonna be like Pandaria then I'd be more like 'oh heeeeeeell naw!'. XD

[Maizou]

It applies to lower POPULATION zones, not lower level.

They can pick and choose what zones will be cross realm and which won't, so you never know though.

[Sukurachi]

In the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta, we’re introducing a new technology that will enable players to meet up and group with other players in under populated areas of the world such as low level zones or areas that other players may have outleveled or moved on from.

doesn't sound like just any zones, but more like lower level zones. areas "other players have moved on from" or outleveled doesn't sound like particularly high level zones.

source: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/5393667/

[Lisaara]

In the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta, we’re introducing a new technology that will enable players to meet up and group with other players in under populated areas of the world such as low level zones or areas that other players may have outleveled or moved on from.

doesn't sound like just any zones, but more like lower level zones. areas "other players have moved on from" or outleveled doesn't sound like particularly high level zones.

source: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/5393667/

Thank you, Sukurachi. :3 <3

[Teigan]

I don't really understand how this works. Granted I haven't been paying that much attention to it. But, my initial reaction is "Rawrbadnolike"

[Lisaara]

From what I'm understanding Teigan, the lowbie zones are gonna be cross-realm. Places like Pandaria are NOT affected.

[Vephriel]

I don't really understand how this works. Granted I haven't been paying that much attention to it. But, my initial reaction is "Rawrbadnolike"

Basically think of the mechanic used in the Dungeon Finder. You're grouped together with people from random servers.

They've implemented a mixture between that and the phasing technology to make each zone eligible for a similar effect. Imagine you're in Desolace on a new alt. Generally these days it would be rare to encounter another player in that zone because a lot of the old world leveling areas are kind of dead. Now let's say you're on server A, and there's someone on server B in Desolace, and also someone on server D and server E (all happen to be in Desolace on their characters on each respective server). The game would pick up that the zone is rather empty on all of these servers, so it would mesh them together in a way that allowed you to see player B, C, D, and E all in the same "phased" Desolace that is now grouped together.

You can also use this technology to group with with a Real ID friend and go to a zone that is eligible for merging and see them standing there in front of you. You could even quest together as long as all the zones you went into would be cross-realm. Places like major cities will be exempt from this because they're always populated. Though there isn't any strict confirmation that no high level areas will do this, it seems likely that they're only keeping it to lower level zones as that's the major 'empty' feel while questing on a new character.

As someone stated in the previous thread I believe, the intent is not to crowd zones, but merely to populate them, which is a big difference.

[Hilde]

I hope this doesn't apply to 70+ zones tbh, I felt the rush to get all the pets I wanted before MoP though but it would suck having to share it with anyone that decided to come into the zones in for example northrend. What if mostt people that come into a zone are level capped hunters, would it still apply?
Also ores etc. I hope this is only in azeroth and only in 1-60 zones.
For low population realms it gives all the competition but not the added benefit of more people at the ah.

Do not want.

[Shadow]

Mmm. Interesting viewpoints on it. While I was just in the "suck it up and get your camp on before it becomes a problem" mindset, I didn't stop to think that maybe it'll just be old world zones or only apply to zones that don't have major rare spawns or world bosses or something (Sha of Anger, Aeonaxx, TLPD...). I just figured that they would do it to all of the zones, even the new ones just to make sure that there aren't 1000 pandas in the starting area and 2000 level 85s in the starting areas, but instead phase them out so people can quest easier. :/ And then it's just up to luck who you get randomly set up with. It could be 50 hunters in one zone or you could be the only hunter hunting a rare. Or maybe you'll be in Storm Peaks with a ton of toons who aren't 80 yet and you're the only camper or vice-versa.

If they don't phase out the starting quest areas, while I'll be relieved that I won't be competing with "other realm" people, I'll probably be twitching as I push through the gauntlet of too many players trying to level at once.