I have been so focused on what will happen in MoP that I didn’t even notice the changes in our server economy until a guildy mentioned it to me last night. You may not have noticed either, in fact, I was expecting the change to impact the economy upon the release of MoP that would effect MoP commodities and never thought about the how the change would be felt in all of the game.
The change? Cross Realm Zones
Let me explain how this works before we discuss the impact to the economy. Blizzard has initiated this new technology that allows servers to “merge” in zones that are under populated and "split" zones that are over populated.
Have you leveled a toon in the last year or two and felt like you were the only person in the entire zone? You probably were! One of the major differences in WoW since its launch is the number of players in a zone. I can remember leveling my very first toon in Vanilla WoW and while running around questing in a zone I would pass by other players or run into a player working on the same quests. It was very rare to be in a zone and not see some else for any length of time. Fast forward to today, leveling a toon from 1-80 can be a lonely experience. The only time I have seen another toon in a low level zone was because they were a level 85 farming commodities or working on their Loremaster Achievement.
Were you one of the folks that bought the WOTLK or CATA expansion and were leveling your toon at the moment it was released? Then you can remember, as I do, the absolute craziness of how many toons were trying to complete the same quests you were trying to complete. There were times that you had to “stand in line” to kill a particular NPC or get a mob kill that you needed. It was very frustrating, especially the higher population servers. If you have not experienced this, then think of it this way; Take all of the toons you see on any given day right now in Stormwind AND Orgimmar, double it and then put them all in the first leveling Zone! Good luck!
Blizzard sees both of these scenarios as issues that impact the experience of the game player and has introduced Cross Realm Zones to even out these imbalances. According to Blizzard’s site “When you’re in a zone that is set as a ‘cross-realm zone’ you’ll notice that in addition to the players you’d ordinarily see from your realm, you’ll also see (and be able to play with) players from other realms. This will happen seamlessly, and players will be able to group and quest as they normally would with players from their own realm.”
I love this from a leveling standpoint, it gives us a much richer experience and allows us to meet other players even if they are from different realms and establish friendships, recruit guild members and group up instances and deliver a more social leveling experience.
OK, that is how it works. So how does it impact your gold making? Stay tuned for Part 2 to get my take on this!
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