The world of Azeroth boasts an amazing figure of over 11 million players. Because of this gigantic population, there is no way to put all those players and personalities in the same place. Hence, the first step after the install is figuring out what type of game I am going to play and under what conditions. It’s a relatively simple process called realm selection. However, there are quite a few simple truths a player may want to consider before choosing a realm to call his new home. Game variations include player vs. environment (PvE) and player vs. player (PvP) both of which are presented in a role-playing (RPPvE, RPPvP) format. Also population can be a deciding factor when choosing where to stake claim.
Personally I think the first decision to get out of the way during realm selection is the choice of a normal realm, also known as PvE, or a player vs. player realm, also known as PvP. Normal realms are established more for questing or harvesting goods with little or no worry of having to face the opposing faction unless you initiate combat on your own terms. In PvP the zones are broken up in various colors. Red zones belong to the enemy faction, green zones belong to your friendly faction, blue zones are null and void of PvP and yellow zones, which are combat free-for-alls 24/7. These yellow zones populate most of the game world on a PvP server.
Of course this means sometimes your poor level 34 mage gets pounced by a bored level 80. This can become quite frustrating to new players, because with a lack of friends or a lack of firepower, higher level combatants can make your digital life a virtual hell. Nonetheless, what goes around comes around, and there are generally low level enemies hiding out in their starting leveling areas as well, so you can to go pay a visit there when you reach your power levels.
A small percentage of the time you get some fair combat in which two close levels go at each other in a PvP wilderness contest. I like PvP realms because I feel you get a true feel for how to play your character in all situations. Normal realms are good for starting players just to get a feel for game concepts without having to look over their shoulder every five minutes, hoping a rogue isn’t hiding in the shadows waiting to strike. But still, the challenge of a PvP realm does reward the patient and proud.
Once you have decided which of the main concepts you want to play under (Normal or PvP), next to decide is if you want to add a role-playing element to the world. Role-playing realms are available for both styles of traditional play. These realms are much stricter on the type of in-game chat and naming restrictions for characters. The non role-playing realms are for those who want to play the World of Warcraft, whereas the RP realms are for those who want to live it.
To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, all the dialogue in the RP realms is much more closely monitored. For instance in general chat you will not see “Hey, my sister got a brand new car,” or “Can you believe he likes Call of Duty 4?” Players will quickly get warnings for this type of behavior because the realm is set up for a natural role-playing feel. Also names that are non-medieval or fantasy names will not be allowed. Examples of this would be TechnoBunny, or Hotdog511. The role-playing realms are for the “thys” and “thous” who want to step into Torgorin the Brave’s shoes and storm off into the dusky hue, seeking glory and fortune.
The final decision to make when selecting a realm is the population of that realm. This is a very important factor, so take care when choosing your final selection. On low population servers for example, fewer people means there are going to be fewer items available on the auction house. This also usually means prices are much higher on low population servers. Finding players to group up with for older content or new raid content can be a bit of a challenge as well on these servers. Medium population is like a low population, except with more players to interact with, not to mention item availability might be a bit more pleasing, with prices possibly getting closer to even.
High population servers are where things begin to change dramatically. First there are an abundance of players to group up with for quests, or raids, etc. Second the auction house should be flooded with all sorts of items and a great deal of competition to boot, which generally favors the buy. However getting into instances and raids can prove a bit challenging. Sometimes based on server population, these raids become locked out due to high volume of play. That places you and your companions in queue just to play these dungeons.
Full servers are a real mess. Generally you can’t even get on a full server without having to go into queue before accessing the server. The same advantages as high population servers come with full servers, but players without great internet connections or great computers are going to hate the lag fest. Not to mention raids and instances are virtually impossible to get into unless of course you are willing to play at five in the morning.
Finally there are servers with populations labeled as “new players”. These can be equally fun and frustrating because the world leaves us with many questions, which new players usually just don’t have the answer to. However if you enjoy the thrill of learning together, there’s no better place to bed down than on one of these unique servers.
Well that pretty much wraps it up for selecting a realm. I hope I provided you with a wealth of information from which to choose your starting stage. I’d like to take this opportunity to provide you with my congratulations. You have completed step one of a thousand in the fun and exciting addiction known simply as the World of Warcraft.
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