Every once in a while Blizzard, the minds behind the MMO behemoth World of Warcraft, make a public announcement that turns my insides into a tight ball of do not want. This is one of them. (Cross-realm grouping for dungeons is coming, but for a price.)
Don't get me wrong, I think the functionality, as limited as it appears to be, is long overdue. In fact, Blizzard's desperate clinging to the server and region models in the past has been a source of frustration for me. I played Guild Wars before I played World of Warcraft and the ability to hop between servers and later between regions at no extra charge was one of the things that still makes it my favorite online game. In World of Warcraft, I often feel boxed in and limited. I can't play with most of my online friends because they're all on US servers. I can't play with some of my old friends because they've long since changed servers.
True, I could pay a rather ridiculous amount of money for a server transfer and also maintain a second account on US realms, doubling my monthly costs and also adding a good chunk of one-time fees. I'd consider doing it for a fraction of the cost, but Blizzard's idea of premium service has always been over the top for me. 20€ for a vanity mount or 10€ for a vanity pet are one thing, but the transfer cost for characters that doesn't even include a race change is prohibitive, especially since there will never be a bulk option that allows me to take all my beloved alts with me without bankrupting me in the process.
This new development might actually make things a little bit easier for people like me. I'll still be stuck on the 4:1 outnumbered faction side of a PvP server that gives me an ulcer every time I try to just play the game where other players might be around (like quest hubs after the release of a patch or expansion or Tol Barad Peninsula), there's still the lifeless economy, but it is fairly quiet and getting the raw materials for my professions is only a matter of time, not competition. Re-Connecting with my old friends from other servers without the giant hurdle of a server transfer would be fantastic.
Unfortunately, the feature as it is suggested seems a lackluster effort and my experience with Blizzard pricing schemes doesn't give me much hope. There won't be any cross-faction grouping, so that already cuts down half of its utility for me. I also still won't have access to friends from other regions and that's another big drawback that makes the features less attractive. If those things were included, I'd seriously consider paying an additional fee - not a full monthly subscription on top but maybe as much as 3-5€ if it also included the current premium features like mobile auction house and guild chat.
I have long since wondered why Blizzard is so adamant about sticking to the realm system. Sure, with their high pricing there's money to be made in unbalanced realms because people will at some point feel like abandoning the sinking ship is the only way not to drown. They talk about realm community, sense of community, a homey feel to the world, but that holds true for only a small percentage of servers and players. Most will find that community starts with friends they already have and ends in guilds and out-of-game communities. And they've begun to enable that with the dungeon finder tool, RealID, and the intention to make heirloom items, for example, capable of being mailed cross-server. They've responded to the clear need of the community for a more fluid system, they know that's what the future holds, but they're dragging it out and claiming developmental or procedural difficulties.
Let's get real here, is the code for WoW that much of a hot mess? I honestly doubt it. They are a business that wants to make a lot of money, and I suppose that's fine. More power to them. But as a customer I have the right to be disgruntled, too, and this is just one more thing that rankles.
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