16/07 Recommended PvE realms

As you might have noticed the Recommended tags on PvE realms are changing quite often these days. The reason for this is that we see population on Recommended PvE realms rising quite fast as long as the tag is there, to stabilise when the tag is taken away. We will continue to update the tags for this realm type relatively often to prevent queues on Recommended realms.

Please note, however, that while some realms fluctuate a bit in population the overall population on English PvE realms is fairly evenly spread and at a comfortable level. Currently there are no plans to open new realms. If/when a new realm is about to be opened we'll let you know.

Q u o t e:
Thundy, when will there be an update on Blizzard Media about WoW's active accounts? Cause it's been a long time ago and many people with no brains like to tell that the Player's base is getting smaller everyday:/

Hope you know something about it :)

That's not something I would be able to comment on. :)

Q u o t e:
So what are the current recommended realms exactly?

Realm Status says Kul'Tiras and Wildhammer.
The in-game list says Hellfire only.
And if I pick English>PvE I end up being sent to Nagrand.

You probably get Nagrand because you have characters there.

Recommendations in-game and in the sticky thread on the Newcomers forum are the most quickly updated ones.

Q u o t e:
Karazhan is less populated than aggamagan... why not open transfer for karazhan then??...

The realms opened for TBC launch just opened as destination realms for PCT. We will wait a bit and see how that affects the realm population first.

Q u o t e:
ok..population on recommended pve realms is rising fast and overall population is healthy...
then why is no new pve realm planned yet?

The key word in the post is "fluctuate". ;)

Q u o t e:
Yeah Hellfire recommended and you need to wait till its your turn to log on your toon!

When was this? I checked the numbers for Hellfire right now, and it's far from having a queue at peak hours.

Q u o t e:
So, is there any way to check the more exact numbers of players on a realm ?

For anybody outside our office walls: no.

Q u o t e:
well they put like 6 PVE realms on reccomended status. I guess we can kiss a new pve realm goodbye probably forever. I think TBC ones were the last new realms we will ever see.

The reason we have 6 Recommended right now is to try spread people out a little more so the realms don't fluctuate too much. The other option would be to have no Recommended realms, and we know what expectations that gives to some. ;)

Q u o t e:
1.Why Blizzard opened so many new realms when TBC started?

2. Why blizzard allow to take the same nick name in other accounts in any realm?

1. Because we had to make an estimate and act before players flooded other realms, not wait and see the chaos and queues and then open realms. The population on most of these realms is actually quite good. "Recommended" doesn't mean "half empty".

2. There are a lot of WoW players, having a lot of characters. To say names would have to be unique across an entire region would mean some would spend a lot of time just finding an available name.

Q u o t e:
IF blizz will open new realms only when next Xpansion cames out, plz some blue let us know... please....

Opening new realms is not tied to the release of expansions, though it's natural to consider it thoroughly at such times too as expansions may bring a lot of new players to the game.

While the original post is still valid for the current situation (which is why it hasn't been changed), it should have been read by quite a few by now. As the number of stickies is growing, I'll unsticky this one again.