North America and Europe stay separate at launch

Many players heard realmless and assumed North America and Europe would share one world. They don't. Asked on the official podcast on 22 October whether NA and EU could play together, Lead Software Engineer Ana Resendez said: "At launch, that's not how it's going to work."

Resendez wouldn't rule it out for later. The obstacles are where the servers physically sit, how Battle.net accounts work, and the fact that Forever runs on much of the infrastructure built for the other versions of WoW. Players who want it should keep asking, Resendez said.

Associate Production Director Clay Stone put it simply. Apart from the rulesets, the only hard lines left are the regions themselves.

A map with North America and Europe as two islands of small player figures, a rope bridge reaching from both shores that stops short under a sign reading Not at launch, Oceania's players linked to North America by a dotted line, and Dee waving from the European side.
Rulesets and regions are the only hard lines left. Language is a preference.

Realmless doesn't mean serverless

"We didn't get rid of servers," Resendez said. The hardware still exists around the world, and computers still run the game and group people. What's gone is the realm list: you choose a ruleset, Normal, PvP or Roleplaying, and the game places you within it. When developers say realm now, they usually mean those servers under the hood.

Rulesets are the other hard line. Blizzard's ruleset post says you need the same ruleset and faction to group, run a dungeon or raid together. Only battlegrounds mix rulesets, except Hardcore.

Where Oceanic players land

Australia and North America share one region, so Australian players can group with American friends. Resendez said placement still takes into account where you live, so Australians connect to physical servers in their part of the world for better ping.

Blizzard hasn't published a server list or the details of how players are placed. Resendez said a future episode would go into more detail, and the podcast's host promised a tech episode that will also cover the clip of players vanishing outside Orgrimmar that went viral during the beta.

What the Preferred Online Language setting does

Within a region, language decides who you see most. Blizzard's ruleset post puts a Preferred Online Language setting under Options, then Languages and Social. It applies to your whole account and can be changed once every 24 hours.

Resendez said the game tries to place you with players who chose the same language, so a German player in Europe sees more German speakers. It isn't a hard line. Sometimes the game can't place you that way, and you can still group with friends who chose another language. Stone gave the opposite case: a player in Europe who picks English meets other English speakers in the European region.

What to agree on before launch

Settle three things with your group before 4 November: the region you'll all play in, the ruleset, and the faction. Region and ruleset can't be bridged later. Then set your language, knowing it only nudges who you meet.

Wowdee's plans with friends will check which of your characters can actually group with your friends' characters before you plan a night around them.

Still to come

Not yet settled by our sources or tested in game:

  • Whether Blizzard ever opens cross-region play between NA and EU.
  • Details of Oceanic server placement, expected in the planned tech episode.
  • Whether character names stay unique per region for Oceanic players sharing the Americas region.

Sources

Beta notes are dated because Forever is still changing.