Virtually in a Realm

      So, looking at this virtual realm thing, now that I've read up on it, I feel I need to opine, much as I did when they announced Flex-raids coming up.

       Yeah, that is kinda how I felt when it was first announced.  Only, less chickness, more short fat dudish screaming... well you get it.

        Anyway, now that I've read a little more, I can tell you from the get go who is going to hate this idea with a passion.  Who is going to rail and scream and call Blizzard names.  Who is going to take up arms, troll forums, and make Blizzard's forum moderator's jobs hell for the next while.

       Everyone who hates cross zone realms (CRZs)

        Because really, this is the next step after CRZs.  This is them taking all the realms and combining them in a way where we get more population, more competition for mining nodes, more fighting people for quest objectives, and frankly all the downsides you get with CRZs.  Knowing I will have to listen to these people, is why I feel like screaming.

        Now to be fair, I have never personally had a problem with CRZs.  I have gone back leveled a couple characters since they were implemented and haven't had a ton of challenge with leveling professions as I go and keeping up.  As a matter of fact the biggest problems I had was that I stayed in zones long after quests had got green and gray because I leveled to quickly to not have to stop and grind for my professions.  That's ok, because that means I also hung in leveling areas long enough to get the whole story.  Even flying around Wrath areas like Sholazar Basin, I still had no more trouble farming ore then when I was a level 80 getting ready to fight the Lich King.  This doesn't mean I didn't have competition, I just don't think it was so bad that I felt like it took away from my gaming experience.  As a matter of fact, I enjoyed seeing other people playing in the areas I was in, and have enjoyed CRZs for the most part.

       Virtual Realms will take it a step further.  That means, my home realm Zangarmarsh will be combined with other realms.  I will still be Lag of Zangarmarsh, but if there is a Lag of (Insert realm name), we might end up playing together and our realms, or a number, will be listed like a surname for identification.  Not that it might not get confusing even with the surname type identifier.

      If you are on a virtual realm, that means you can join guilds, with any guild on your virtual realm.  You can mail between characters, you can do current raid content.  Essentially, it will behave like one giant realm where we share Auction Houses, Raids, etc...  And while this is good for low pop realms and will give people options there that don't involve paying to transfer to a more populated realm, I wonder how it will effect high population realms, or mid population realms like mine.   I think it's fair to question whether or not this is good for everybody, or if this is a band-aid fix for the low population realms, that is going to involve everyone who logs in.

     Now, I like the idea, that I may finally be able to level several horde characters that will benefit from my BOA items that are gathering dust in my bank.  As someone who has 8 out of 11 characters on my home realm at 85 or higher, most of these are going to waste, and I like leveling characters.  (Yes, I know I'm sick)
This means I might be able to build a support system horde side, like I have on my alliance side.  (The only professions I don't have leveled are leather working and skinning, and that will be fixed when/if I level my monk.)

     I also like the idea of having more accountability in the community.  One of the problems with LFR and random dungeons is that you can be a jerk and unless there is someone else in your realm thrown in with you there is no penalty for it.  However, if you end up with people in your community a lot more often then your reputation is more at stake.  There is more chance of someone you run with being able to call you out in a meaningful way.  They will be able to contact your guild officers or guild leader, possibly causing you to get kicked out of your guild.  If you keep up that behavior and get pushed out of enough guilds you will eventually lose your credibility and may even get yourself blacklisted on your realm.  Most guilds don't want people in them that get them constant mail and complaints.

     There is a lot still not set in stone on this, so if they make any more big announcements I will give my opinion.  Over all, I think this feature will be a good thing, but I think there is going to be a lot of heart ache over it.  What do you think?

Lag