I am still very much on the fence about cross-realm zones. The truth is, it has not impacted my gameplay enough for me to solidly say "the pro's outweigh the cons" or otherwise. There are things I like about the feature, and plenty I don't.
When CRZ was implemented, it was blast being able to play with friends from other realms while out and about in the "real" world and not just instances. However, it only took about five minutes' thought for me and my friends to come up with various ways to exploit realm-hopping. It was clear that the ability to chose which realm you were on via changing the Party Leader meant you could hop realms to farm mobs faster, escape crowded areas, or launch surprise PvP attacks by gathering on one realm then hopping to the target realm.
We also talked about the positive ways to use it; Cenarion Circle was having a particular problem with an RP troll at the time, and it would have been very nice if we could simply realm hop to avoid trolls. We used the party system a couple of times to "invite" players to come to our RP events when they were from servers that didn't automatically show up in our area. It was nice!
I understand the reason they took away the ability to hop to the party leader's realm; too many people were using it to exploit game mechanics and cause trouble. However, it took away what I felt was the most important feature for a roleplaying community: the ability to consistently and reliably be able to invite people to your realm and event. We lost some of our control. Partying with other people meant we couldn't chose were to end up.
On a larger scale, I'm upset that I have less of a choice now about which realm I am on when I'm not in Stormwind. Moon Guard is the usual target of these attacks, even if it is otherwise a good roleplay server. Like it or not, there are plenty of people who specifically avoided rolling on Moon Guard because of it's reputation, and now that choice didn't matter. We used to be able to confidently say our Goldshire was safe. That's no longer true. We are the roleplayers who chose to buy a house on the other side of town from the airport, but then Blizzard moved the airport into our backyard. Of course we're not happy.
The world does feel like there are more people, and I've run into more roleplayers, and the results have been mixed. Cultures are clashing. We have met some very nice roleplayers who we'd like to see again, but we've also come across roleplayers who style doesn't mesh with the established tone of our community and it can be awkward. Yes, that does sound horribly elite, but it's true. Just like individual guilds can have their own "style" and "tone," Cenarion Circle has its own culter of roleplay, and it's jarring when you meet people who casually accept playing San'layn or what-have-you. I'm sure other realms would probably balk at the idea of the AAMS and that CC would accept the concept of a neutral courier company.
There's the issue of what to do when guild with conflicting themes collide. If a player from the <Stormwind City Watch> and another realm's equivalent City Police group show up, how do you resolve the confict of who is in charge?
If two roleplay guilds are using the same building, what happens then? One would hope they'd be reasonable and either agree to ignore each other, or work out an IC compromise to explain why they'd both be in the same place. Every now and then I've run into other roleplayers at Aerie Peak, but that does not mean I give them grief about violating Terra Incognita's space. Tehcnically speaking, we consider our guild to be guests of the dwarves, so I ignore any other "guests" or "visitors" unless the issue is specifically address in an IC way.
However, we recently had a guild driven out of its roleplay base because cross-realm players were harrassing them and giving them a hard time. After weeks of trying to ignore the harrassment, they decided it was easier to relocate someplace more remote. So it's clear that not every roleplayer - or just regular WoW players - are as willing to be adaptable. Driving roleplay into the far corners of Azeroth to avoid harassment is sad.
Cross realms zones have limited someone's options to avoid harassment. That guild did not have the choice to change realms, because it would not have escaped the players causing the problems.
In a way, there are now fewer realm choices. When I roll a
character, it's no longer as simple as saying, "Not Moonguard." Now I
have to have to lump every realm that phases with Moon Guard into the
same category, if I were truly serious about finding a MG-free Goldshire. Players are understandably upset about Blizzard taking away choices.
Eventually, slowly, we're going to find a new balance and a new culture that encompasses each realm that we're been grouped with. Change itself isn't bad; having more people to play with, more perspectives, can be good. It can shake up a stale situation. It can encourage more people to roleplay, if they see more examples of it everywhere they go. CC will lose a little of its uniqueness, but also some of its isolation.
I would like to explore the option of rolling characters on grouped
realms when I need a quick character, or if I've filled up my character
limit on Cenarion Circle. I could create a roleplay character on
Wrymrest Accord for roleplay and still attend Cenarion Circle events...
assuming phasing in my favor. I would miss out on server chat, but at
least with Battle Tags, I could still talk to all my friends and
guildmates. I could even monitor guildchat via the Armory on my phone
while on another realm.
Overall, I'm still in a very much wait-and-see position. We're at a tenuous time right now, and it's our responsibility as roleplayers to help shape where our culture is going to go. Are we going to be active about trying to encourage the positive aspects? Accept other people from other realms? Work on compromises so no one else feels persecuted? I believe Cenarion Circle is up to the challenge. . . is everyone else?
