Dralek

But losses are expected in every private server, however never that abrupt and is usually a slow monthly decline. However if a large % of the playerbase suddenly stopped logging would explain the reason. By the time Elysium was released is january(?), anathema still had around 8k people online, which is now sitting at 4k. A 50% loss of population is a bit much.

Is this true? So this is defintly the reason as to why anathema loss such massive population.

Realms have a total combintion of players of 13k-14k, just about the same as old nostalrius had which had 14k online. People want to think its dying because it no longer has the numbers it had when launched was hyped, and now the population has sort of stabilized into the one old nostalrius had. The problem are individual realm populations, which are disproportionate, with elysium having a lort of people, and zek'thur having very few, while anathema can't even compete because its an older realm. Stop saying it is dying, cause the project is just fine.

If that is your response to my argument defending the staff, all I can do is laugh at it.

To answer this specifically: Sure they can't keep up with deadlines, but have you considered all the unexpected problems that have arose in the past months? DDOS attack, crash due to removal of donation payments, drama with nostalrius former staff, drama by silly streamers, part of the admin staff leaving, drama by guilds etc. Imagine having a project and setting a deadline to work on AQ; but then one guilds screwes u over and you have to spend 3 days contacting your hoster to fix the server? thats 3 days of work lost. Throw in all the daily problems, such as people having account problems, reviewing bans, contacting support on how to connect, checking this ENTIRE forum, fixing bugged quests, handling server errors, hiring new staff or talking with other realms for collabortion,etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. And finally multiply all of these problems anathema suffers, by 4, because Elysium, Darrowshire and Zek'thur have problems of their own. Considering all the problems that Anathema has experienced since it was released, I'm actually surprised they haven't close it all together. And what do you expect, for them to say:"Hey guys we are sorry, AQ isn't exactly ready because you see, every time we are working on the server, something happens and we have to focus on it" .... and another part of the community goes bonkers and creates more drama. If the community, for once, tried to take this like adults, be patient and stop crying, the realm would be amazing again. Unfortunatly, this will never be the case. It is surprising no one can realise that admins are actually making a huge effort just to keep this afloat. And consider they do all this...while also having a life of their own.

Quite the contrary, rather than showing support or trying to solve the issue like adults, what we got was a mass exodus from top hardcore raiding guilds acting like 5 year old drama queens after 1 or 2 days of the announcement, in fact one that was so childish as asking for a donation back that got anathema down for 3 days. Rather than waiting to have a nice talk with the admins about it. Remember anathema is 1 among 4 realms, one that believe it or not has other problems that can take up priority, like the consant DDOS attack, connection issues, hackers, gold farmers, etc. Lets also not forget that, with the recent drama the admin staff is now fewer in numbers, and have a life outside the project, so expecting them to be on a 24/7 watch list is naive at best. So saying that:"the admins promised to talk about it on tuesday, and OMG 3 days later and nothing!" is just being impatient. We all know that the admins will eventually reduce the materials necessary, given that almost everyone willing to contribute is asking for it. But until then, there is no reason as to why everyone that was planning on contributing shouldn't do so. Its not like what you turn in now won't matter. Certainly the material requierements won't stay like this, but they will still be higher than in the original version. And I do blame the anathema community: 1/3 of them are oblivious to the event andf have only tried to benefit from it (making prices higher), the other 1/3 just sits around crying about it, while the final 1/3 (probably much much less) is actually busting their asses playing the war effort, while waiting for the admins to see what happens. Certainly if after 1 month, the war effort is at only 10% they will call it and end it themselvers.- So instead of having to discuss this over and over, we could all just be playing, saving materials, turn them in (or not), and simply wait.

So? A lot of realms took over a month to open the gates, nothing strange there. Problem is here big guilds are slacking off, casual guilds are slacking off, and random players are slacking off. Maybe it will take us 3 months to do it. However, I'm not asking for you to farm anything. I'm just pointing out that there are people crying in the forums about it, without actually making an effort to complete the event. The anathema community is the one failing. The fact that the admins actually tried to make something very vanilla like, by making it hard is something good. I mean seriously, each time the "raid loggers" log in to farm "boring MC", why don't they use that hour to farm mats? Oh...they don't want to, they rather kill Onyxia for the millionth time instead.

I'm speaking in general terms to the hardcore raider, not trying to single you out personally or offend you (I have no idea who you are). And I'm not chastising anyone, I'm simply replying your argument that "raiders have nothing to do, but do boring raids". And I'm replying they can simply farm boring mats instead, and be bored just as they are, while being productive.

Given that your entire comments are based on the part that you are "bored" of BWL, and MC, pretty much anything you do at this point is a boring hassle, just like farming mats. Again, you are crying that you have nothing to do (along with the rest of the hardcore raiders) and only raid log to do, for the millionth time "boring BWL and boring MC". Why not do the boring "mat farming" so you can have AQ? Because complaining and comfortably waiting is easier. If every raider drama queen would have played the war effort, they would probably be raiding AQ this saturday. They chose not to. Thats their fault, not everyone elses.

Exactly. You do not wish to do the war effort. If people hadn't been crying about it, and had actually done it, it would be near completition. But most hardcore raids are refusing to play whats available to them. And no, its not imposible, its just not economically viable. Some guilds have re-rolled on other servers, and would rather be leveling in barrens than farming mats. That is their choice. I agree the materials requiered are excesive. But it is, by all means, something to do for what you described as "bored players".

if people are sick of BWL, they can very well invest their time and just farm the war effort materials, and have their AQ event. The fact that hlf the guilds have refused makes me think they are not really that interested in moving the realm foward. Complaining that you have nothing to do, yet not doing what is available to you is stupid. My suggestion is that, regardless of what you wish for, eventually, mergers will happen, once population numbers get so low. Let me ask you something, if by the time we are done with AQ and in the wait for naxx, the population gets so low and a merger is required we would have to do it anyways. I rather have it now, refarm bwl for whats necessary and be done with it. Try to think ahead.

Sure go ahead, name them. Every charcter too. You said it yourself raiders have nothing to do, thus the reason they quit. And most are already quitting. So what difference would it make? People cry that they have nothing to do and want the new patch, but then quit and migrate to another realm, to start all over and run MC. The drama created by hardcore raiders escapes all logic. In all seriousness, the zk+anathema is just a suggestion regarding the population cap. In fact many zek'thur players were anathema players, that couldn't manage the cap in Elysium. You don't have to do it, or like it, its just mere thought among the number of possibilities that we could implement to restore the population, given that zek'thur should have never existed in the first place (or just exist as a temporary solution for elysium cap).

Hardly a main one, given it only affects people that are fully decked in tier2/BWL gear. For the many 60's in blues, tier1/MC gear, or half tier2/BWL gear, it really changes nothing, in fact in some way gives them the chance to assemble their sets before AQ is realeased. The most probable explanation is the connection problems. Last week anathema was down for 2 entire days. And 12-16 hour shut-downs are a common weekly theme. Also the daily DDOS makes playing at peak times imposible some days. Furthermore, the loss of some new player influx joining destroys open-world fun such as pvp campers and stuff. Same goes for instance battleground, which now days are few and always against premades. The population began decreasing as soon as Elysium launched, and it kept going down as the weeks went by. The diference is that now it has reached a noticeable margin (5k peak compared to the initial 9k capped, almost half).

People don't wish to turn in materials, because it would be economical suicide to do so, given opportunists will now sell them higher in the AH. And I agree materials need to be changed. However you are naive if you believe that is the reason most people have "quit", and blaming the war effort as the reason anathema is dying would be a mistake. The server has been loosing players since way before the war effort was announced. Sure, some guilds made an open drama about it, doesn't mean its the reason behind it.

That may be so. But at some point it is highly likely anathema will have to merge with another realm, regardless of the implications. And that might lead to downgrade items. What will we do then? The only thing we are doing is kicking the ball for our futureselves to deal with the problem. I agree that launching a fresh and and old realm was a mistake, we shoul have gotten either all fresh realms, or only the old ones. But that was then, and we are in the now. Pointing out what could have been, won't really help us much.

Taking into consideration that all the anathema players that are already decked endured a year without those characters (do to nostalrius shut-down), that whole "drama" about lack of content seems unrealistic to me. Sure some guilds have quit because of that, but in truth are nothiing more than a minority. Most people are just happy playing their characters, many guilds still play and contribute to the AQ event. A couple of weeks doing the war effort shouldn't be much of a problem. Furthermore, it is well known that private servers take longer to implement patches, given the admins work for free and thus can't devote their full time on the project. This has happened in every private server, and it is well-known by most people playing, thus the delay in AQ patch wasn't be a surprise for most. While it is an overall contributing factor, the other problems that plague anathema seem more of a reason for the population loss: constant lag, 12 hour shutdowns twice a week, lack of new influx of players (given most start in elysium), rerolling in elysium, loss of interest (which is common in every game regardless of content), loss of advertisement by streamers, etc. EVERY server suffers from population loss, and mergers are something inevitable. If before patch 1.12 the population drops so low that a merger is inevitable, we would have to ignore the arguments you present and merge anathema with another realm regardless of its implications. So, in my opinion, the sooner the better, and just deal with the possible mergers now.

I do play on anathema, otherwise I wouldn't bother commenting on its issues. And no, I'm not wrong. The very guilds you describe are the ones that quit playing in mss in the past month, not the "semi-casual hypers" who still have plenty to do. Each day less and less raiders log in to afk at IF/OG. While opening AQ might help bring some people back, the amount of people that re-start playing can't be calculated. I understand that what I suggest is crazy and seems to go against the requirements of both communities, and wouldn't be well recieved, but the zek'thur merge is just a suggestion to handle the 2 problematic realms whose population has dwindled. It is a matter of long term stability over immediate satisfaction. Its an idea for long term survival, nothing more. Eventually, in every private server, mergers are necessary. The sooner, the better. In anathema the peak last week was 6k players online, this week the average is around 4k-5k. Leveling zones are empty. Instanced PvP is a disaster, with only 1 or 2 bgs up (usually AB and WSG) being farmed by premades, with AV having 5 people only. So whatever needs to be done, should be done soon.

This, is particularly important too. With the loss of many streamers, the server lost a lot of advertising. Hopefully AQ will also increase the amount of streaming.

While this is a huge contributing factor to the more recent drop in population, the numbers have been declining each week since december 2016, as it is to be expected with any realm that has no influx of new players (given most new players join Elysium, or Zek'thur). Obviously I agree that things such as the war effort controversy, the constant DDOS and lag, or the silly drama created by some useless youtubers in the past few weeks, etc., don't really help given that it may drive away already existing players faster.

You are miss-reading my suggestion, thinking in terms of having people from Zek'thur transfer to Anathema. That isn't what I'm saying, nor what I suggested. People from Anathema and Zek'Thur could merge into the same patch as elysium (with an item removal/nerf/etc) and essentially merge both realms. Of course people from Zek'thur don't wish to go to AQ, and wish to experience MC/BWL progression. But most players in anathema, are stuck in BWL progression, given war effort is taking too long. Most people in Anathema, still play for attachment for their characters, as someone explained earlier. I would personally trade my tier 2 gear for a tier 1 gear in a different realm, if that realm seems to have better odds of survival than the current and slowly death Anathema is enduring. In fact in anathema, a large majority of semi-casual players only pug raid MC and Ony, don't even do BWL yet. Only people who will hate that would be hardcore tier 2 guilds obviously. Problem is that by the end of AQ, Anathema's numbers would have probably dropped significantly, and the realm would be on its way out. Its a matter of choosing between our current wealth, or a long term stable future.

I understand that, but having 3 different realms in 3 different patches creates a problem. People will create characters in only one of those 3, while the other 2 are left to die. My suggestion isn't a popular one, and its not meant to be one. Anathema players could loose their progression, or zek players might have to jump to a more progressed one. My suggestion would be to meet middle ground. Again, my idea is probably disliked by most people, even me, because it creates problems for anyone. But it is one that would help solve population problems in both realms, and insure a more stable popultion growth in the near future. Let me stress something: problem isn't population numbers, but population growth. Something both zek and anathema lack.

Elysium has no population problem. Anathema and Zek'thur do.

Currently there are almost 14k online across all 4 realms, which is the same amount nost had. So the total player base seems to be the same. Elysium is truly fine, there are no problems in that realm. Anathema is still good, but it isn't growing anymore. Some leveling zones are kind of empty. Most players seem to be lvl 60. Even max level zones don't have the amount of players they used to, because most are just afk in IF/OG. No idea about darrowshire, but given it is the only PVE realm, it makes sense that players who wish to play in such realm would still join. No idea about zek. ----------------------- So the only 2 problematic realms are zek and anathema, given that Elysium gets the largest influx of players, while zek and anathema get stucked in population. IMHO, the best solution would be to merge anathema and zek, and then place the new realm and elysium realm in the same progression patch, making both realms "equal". You can control population migration from there by simply disabling/enabling character creation in one realm at the time, to keep both realms on an equal footing. Problem with this solution is that either anathema players will have to accept a downgrade and loss of both items and progression, or zek players will have to jump ahead. Personally, while this isn't a popular choice (for the record, I would be loosing my Anathema tier2 items and progression too), it is a possible solution to consider for both realms to survive in the long run.

A blizzlike server tries to make the game as close as posible to the original game. While some things will be added as "custom", they are usually done under the guideline of mantaining the spirit of the original content. The increased requirements of the war effort are the perfect example: in vanilla wow once the war effort was announced, players had no idea what they had to gather, while here everyone did and had already began saving materials for it, thus a "custom" change was implemented, increased requirements, with the objective of making the war effort last the same amount as it did in retail wow, and not be over in one day. Gold respecs are high, because vanilla does not encourage you to respec. Lowering the cost of respecs would go against the spirit of vanilla wow, because it would encourage you to respec as often as you can (as Tinkler explained).

Well the combined population in peak time of every realm together is between 14k-20k (as in 7k elysium, 6k anathema, 2k darrowshire, and 1k zek), which is around the same peaks old nost had. I don't think we are loosing that many players in comparison with old nost. Sure, the first 4 weeks since anathema/elysium launched we had a peak of over 21k players, but that was just the hype of a chunk returning to the old nost and the other trying to get a heads start in the fresh realm, its just that people are spread around 4 different realms.