Chapter 1077: Balance of Factions (Third Update)
Domestic players could use "I Am MT" as a game guide for "World of Warcraft," but foreign players didn’t have that luxury. However, it didn’t matter much—overseas players, especially in Europe and America, were already very familiar with Western fantasy themes. They might even adapt faster than domestic players.
Five minutes before the server launch, players were already entering their game pods and opening the "World of Warcraft" client. As for those cloud players without Matrix game pods, they could only wait on the Moyu streaming platform, in their favorite streamers’ channels, for the game to go live.
This was a global celebration for players. At this moment, regardless of region, country, ethnicity, or language, everyone was eagerly awaiting the launch of "World of Warcraft."
What? You’re asking about time zone differences between foreign and domestic players? What could Chen Mo do about that? He wasn’t a creator god who could force every region in the world to have midnight at the same time...
Ensuring the domestic server launched at midnight local time was enough. Other regions would launch at the same moment, all based on their respective time zones, all at the top of the hour.
What? You say it’s unfair to foreign players? They might have to deal with a 4 AM launch? Well, how about staggering the launches by time zone after the domestic server goes live? Everyone gets a midnight launch? See, then foreign players would complain about the later launch time.
So this was fine. The whole world launched at the same time, based on midnight at Thunderbolt Interactive’s local time. No issues. In the Warcraft universe, Thunderbolt Interactive’s headquarters in the capital was the center of the cosmos.
Players had already found the entrance to "World of Warcraft" in "Oasis." This time, it wasn’t a gryphon or a wyvern, but a massive Dark Portal, standing silently deep within the island, surrounded by a ring-shaped crater.
Any player familiar with the lore of Azeroth was stunned. What the heck, a Dark Portal! So we’re the orcs invading Azeroth? Why else would we go through the Dark Portal?
Complaints aside, everyone had to admit that this entrance had style... Chen Mo loved "Dark Souls" so much that he just put a bunch of bonfires on the island. Other games were relatively low-key. But "World of Warcraft" just dropped a giant Dark Portal on the island like that.
At this point, the Dark Portal was already erected, but the portal itself hadn’t activated yet. It was just an empty frame, with no faint green glow inside. Obviously, it would only be passable when the server officially launched.
Players were already gathered outside the Dark Portal, ready to enter Azeroth the moment the time came.
...
On the Moyu streaming platform, almost all major streamers had set aside their current games to stream the grand launch of "World of Warcraft." Lin Xue, Zou Zhuo, Old P, Qin An, Xue Kai, Que Shen, Wang Laji... Whether big or small streamers, almost everyone was planning to stream "World of Warcraft."
It wasn’t just to ride the hype wave. Many of them were loyal fans of Azeroth. For a game of this magnitude, they had to experience it firsthand.
"Oasis" now allowed friend invitations, so Zou Zhuo had invited Lin Xue and Old P to wait at his seaside mansion. Everyone entered using sleep mode. They had all tried sleep mode in the past few days, but it still felt very novel. As long as you fell asleep in the game pod, you’d automatically wake up in "Oasis." It felt no different from normal mode, but players knew they were actually sleeping in the game pod in reality, which still felt magical.
On the other side, Chen Mo and Li Jingsi quietly created two alt accounts, ready to play. In truth, Chen Mo hadn’t played "World of Warcraft" in a long time. Thinking back, he probably missed Azeroth more than anyone else in this world. Moreover, the Azeroth world rendered with next-gen VR technology would be a huge leap from the original PC game, with different gameplay and details.
Li Jingsi was still pondering which race to play.
"Are you going Alliance or Horde?" Li Jingsi asked.
Chen Mo said, "When you played 'Warcraft,' wasn’t your main race the Night Elves? Go with Night Elves."
Li Jingsi nodded. "That’s what I was thinking. The female characters of the Horde races... are really hard to look at..."
Chen Mo chuckled. "Can’t help it. It’s not time for the Blood Elves to appear yet, according to the story..."
Li Jingsi browsed the info. "Let me see what class to play. By the way, won’t the Alliance and Horde populations be unbalanced? The Horde races are really unfriendly to female players."
Chen Mo shook his head. "No, they won’t."
...
Chen Mo believed the population wouldn’t be unbalanced mainly because of the influence of "I Am MT." Currently, the Alliance had a clear advantage in appearance. Without Blood Elves, only Human and Night Elf females were appealing to female players.
However, domestic players were deeply influenced by "I Am MT." Characters like A Mu Ti, Sha Man, Hunter, and Dai Zei had many fans. Influenced by this, a significant number of players would likely choose the Horde side, so there was no need to worry about the Horde being underpopulated early on.
As for when level 70 content opened... that’s when they’d need to worry about the Alliance population.
Additionally, the AI system would balance faction populations. If a server had too many Alliance or Horde players, the system would restrict players from joining that faction.
World PvP was always a key activity in "World of Warcraft." An imbalance between Alliance and Horde populations would lead to dead servers. For example, if the Horde had too many players, Alliance low-level characters would suffer in the wild, unable to complete quests, and eventually transfer servers. As this trend continued, the remaining Alliance players on that server would find they couldn’t even form raid groups, and they’d all leave. The Horde might enjoy the early advantage, but later, with no Alliance in sight, the server would become boring.
Of course, this balance had some nuance. Many factors influenced players’ faction choices, such as character appearance, battleground performance, personal preferences, and so on.
Based on Chen Mo’s experience from his past life, once the Blood Elf race appeared, the Horde population would surge, giving them an absolute advantage over the Alliance. So Chen Mo had also buffed the appearance of Humans and Night Elves. Human males were no longer the scruffy, short-necked uncle types; they were all designed to be more aesthetically pleasing.
Of course, the specific population balance would need to be handled gradually. At launch, it was best to let players choose freely.