I collected some statistics about the new server caps on WoW as I anticipated in one of the previous posts. I wish I could quote the original plan where they wrote in detail about these new server caps but it is gone (and here you hear me swear, as it always happen when I cannot fucking find what I’m searching). This is taken out the server split FAQ:

Are any other measures being taken to avoid forcing a realm split?

Yes. One measure is to raise the player caps for all realms when The Burning Crusade launches. This will be possible in part because of the hardware upgrades that we’ve worked to put in place since the original launch.

So I went checking how many players they allowed on a single server.

Before this expansion the server caps were set between 3200-3400 players. Counting alliance + horde. From my new surveys it looks like Blizzard didn’t go all that far. The new cap seems to be between 3700-3800 or so. I’ll run more tests to see more precisely if little more or little less, but that number should be already fairly correct.

So we have a +500 players more or less. On the Silvermoon server there was a queue as I logged in to take the numbers and when I was done the queue was still there. I counted 2600 alliance characters and 1200 horde. So around 3800 overall.

About the two new races: usually 2/3 of Draenei are Shamans, and 2/3 of Blood Elves are Paladins.

I would post all the graphs but they aren’t all that interesting. The level 60 wall is starting to cascade on levels 61, 62 and 63. While the graph only hints at some more activity between level 1 and 20, but still very flat. Only around 1/4, 1/5 of players are starting new characters, while the others are storming the Outlands in the race to 70.

EDIT: I ran more polls today and I can count between 3750-3850 players. So the new cap is probably 3800.

So the first level 70 was a french player on euro Archimonde. I have already reported this yesterday on the forums but what I find amusing is the subtext of the whole thing.

It reminds me the scene in Forrest Gump, where he goes running back and forth between the two US coasts. And there are all these people following him like a prophet, waiting for the final revelation. Then he stops, turns and says “I’m pretty tired.”

And here it’s the same. The race to 70. First player worldwide (assuming) to reach the top. And we expect words of wisdom. Something engraved in history.

What will our hero say? What’s the meaning of life?

“je ding”

Priceless.

I’m taking screenshots as if I’m playing for the first time. I like.

I confirm what I wrote in the post below. World design and art are excellent.

Blizzard has surpassed itself once again. What they did with this expansion is amazing.

I’m level 4 on my dranei shaman (as I don’t have any 60 to go see the outlands on the euro servers) and having fun.

The zone art is awesome and one step higher than classic WoW, while I have some complaints about some minor details and character art (like hairstyles, blood elfs in particular). I also didn’t like the running animations, but after playing more I like draenei’s animations overall (and voices too!).

The launch here was absolutely smooth, or at least it was from my personal perspective (and I also play on one of those servers branded “full”). The expansion was activated without even requiring downtime, just a relaunch of the client. The server is working without an hint of lag and the starting zones have players without being overcrowded (but it’s night here).

I’m speaking way too early, but for now it’s a flawless victory. We’ll see in the next days.

Tomorrow I’ll try to take out some statistics with Census to try to figure out what’s the new population cap.

EDIT: When even on FoH you read it was a flawless launch, then maybe it’s true. But we still have to see how the population increases in the next days.

P.S.
Notice how the “secret” of WoW’s art is all in the colors. Every screenshot and zone seems to have an unique palette. And really close to a painting effect.

I’m not 100% sure but I think that the 2.0.5 patch removes from the TOS the point that made illegal playing from outside the US.

I hope it was recognized as a mistake.

If it’s true, thanks.

If the news of the forced server splits below your ass wasn’t enough (my opinion is here), now we have this.

I still remember when Blizzard repeatedly promised to european players official support to play on the american servers. But “only after the european launch”.

Then the european launch arrived and Blizzard completely ignored questions about this issue if not repeating that they didn’t want european players on the american servers FOR THEIR OWN INTEREST. Because they were worried to provide a quality service and they didn’t want us to experience too much lag or receive support in a language we don’t understand. How cute.

Giving players the choice of course was above them.

With this last patch in preparation for The Burning Crusade they modified the TOS:

4. Limitations on Your Use of the Service.

A. You may only access the Service from within the territorial boundaries of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or Singapore. Any access to your Account, whether by you or anyone else, from any location outside those countries is a breach of this Agreement.

So if you are an european player playing on the american server from today you are considered in the same league of gold farmers, exploiters, cheaters or hackers. You are breaking the terms of service.

Fuck you Blizzard.

One day you won’t be anymore “king of the hill” and you’ll start to pay one by one for all these fucking stupid choices.

I don’t think that treating legit customers as criminals will payback. But till you are in a dominating position then you can afford just everything, even this shit.

P.S.
LOL. Someone remembers that in my proposed LFG tool I had suggested to use an animated demon eye to appear when the LFG flag is active? Well, after this last patch when you are flagged LFG (but only for the auto-join option) an animated demon eye appears near the mini map ;)

No, really.

Contrarily to what I expected, The Burning Crusade has Gone Gold and will be ready for the January 16 launch:

The expansion has already gone gold. We see no reason why the game isn’t going to be on the shelves at the planned date.

January 16th, in case you forgot.

With the release not being delayed I wonder if the expansion is actually complete.

I do expect the servers to have problems and bugs to come up, but there isn’t much you can do about that. Those are issues that I consider tolerable because you can never be ready about everything. In those case you can only have patience and I’ll always excuse Blizzard (or any other company) for that.

But I wonder if the content is complete. Outside of those things that they said won’t be there at launch, all the rest is already accessible and working properly in beta?

I’m a bit skeptical. Maybe I’m wrong.