The influx for WoW: WotLK Classic is huge. So big that there are long queues and hardly anyone can play.
The pre-patch for Wrath of the Lich King Classic has been live for several days now and finally allows the creation and leveling of Death Knights before moving to Northrend with the launch at the end of the month. However, not everyone who wants to play can do so – the demand is gigantic and there are queues that last almost half a day.
What’s going on with WoW Classic? In WoW Classic, the pre-patch 3.0 is currently live, leading up to the expansion “Wrath of the Lich King”. WotLK is considered the most popular expansion of World of Warcraft and accordingly attracts many players.
However, a problem has developed in WoW Classic, as the community tends to want to play only on a fraction of the available realms. In each region, almost everyone is gathered on the largest realms or has migrated to the “Fresh Start” servers, where everyone starts from scratch.
This currently leads to queues of up to 10 hours in the afternoon and evening – depending on the realm. So if someone wants to play WoW for an hour after work, they probably have to start their PC and log in before work or school.
On other realms, the problems are less severe, with queues of 10-30 minutes to be expected.
So can you not play at all? Yes, it is possible. However, in many cases, WoW fans will have to choose a realm that is less populated, which likely cannot be a long-term solution. After all, hardly anyone wants to give up their characters or switch to a realm where the faction balance is completely out of whack.
Another concern is that you might switch to a realm that will be “dead” after a few weeks. After all, both Burning Crusade and Vanilla Classic have shown that the player base consolidates on a few realms and underpopulated realms tend to die out rather than become healthier after some time.
The real strain is yet to come: Even though the influx is already massive, the real problem seems to be just around the corner. The launch at the end of September is likely to be a big incentive for many old hands and newcomers to give WoW Classic a try.
It is to be expected that the queues on launch day will be even larger – and there does not seem to be an immediate solution to the problem.
Are you also annoyed by the long queues? What do you think Blizzard could do to solve the issue?
