Old Servers and "New Players"

For as long as I have played World of Warcraft I have stayed primarily on one server. Lets be frank here, my server is OLD, it was one of the second set of servers released and over the years has reached max population several times. In an attempt to keep things from stagnating Blizzard has used several techniques to mix things up. Offering free realm transfers OFF the server was a popular one for quite a while. There was even a time when they threatened to dissolve the server entirely and send everyone to two entirely new servers unless we got the population down.  They finally have managed to get enough old players to leave try a new tactic.

This past patch our server became open to "New Players" with hysterical results. Apparently to a great many people "New Player" servers means "New Server". So with out doing any research before hand a couple of guilds decide to server transfer. Their intention was to come to this "New Server" and gather up all the "Server Firsts".  Now progression on our server has juggled around over the years with the top guilds sliding around from first, second or third place. The players IN those guilds all tend to be the same, it just may be the guilds themselves that change. Needless to say these new guilds were met with mockery.

When Blizzard opened up the server to new players the effect on some of these old guilds was rather interesting. One decided to transfer off. Another closed up shop, stating they were all going to go play SWTOR. A couple of the others are attempting to pick up the pieces. Over all it feels like a ship that is sinking and the rats are fleeing.  Activity on the server forums is almost nil, the vast majority being farewells rather than recruitment's. The general feeling seems to be that if the server is marked as "New Player" then there is no way anyone will be able to find quality recruits with out having to expend a tremendous amount of effort. Effort few feel they should have to put forth this late in a game.

Old servers have some advantages. All the content is already available to you. Sunwell, AQ, etc. However few people really care about that unless they are after transmogrification gear, mounts or reputations. There also seems to be a whole lot more level 25 guilds on our server. Yet it is like having a bunch of toddlers show up at a retirement home. Some find the little ones amusing while others just want them to get off their lawn and stop making so much noise!

We have considered server transferring as a guild. The reason had more to do with our connection than anything else.  The vast majority of our members are located on the east coast or mid west so getting a server there would be helpful. The problem is that the guild has just grown so large no one feels comfortable forcing a transfer. That and the expense. Numerous of our members have five or more alts so unless Blizzard offered free transfers there is really no way they could stay.  So for the moment we are stuck bailing water and attempting to plug the holes.