Kronos Scourge invasion

The Kronos Scourge invasion is on us and I couldn't resist giving it a look. Which means logging on, getting the 2x quest items from my mailbox (one of which is bugged and shouldn't have been sent) and running to the Eastern Plaguelands... Where I could clearly see a skull by browsing the world map yet couldn't find any flying ziggurat or scourge crystals. Also one of the Scourge invasion questgivers had a ? question mark even though I didn't have his quest (I couldn't complete it anyway). On Oct 6th I was told we had already killed 25 "waves" of scourge.

Good news is that I did end up finding the crystals in the Burning Steppes. And quite some bit of Alliance farming them (are you stacking oils for Naxxramas?).

Luckily most of them focused on the scourge and not on me. As described in a bugreport, I did not see any necropolis flying in the sky. All scourge creatures are missing their money loot. Killing scourge creatures does lead to flying spells hitting the crystal (which cannot be selected... but probably should) but it also keeps me in combat because reasons.

90% of what happens during this invasion

Scourge minions melee hit me for roughly 70/hit (reduced), which would mean 88/hit or so unreduced, which looks too low. Doesn't seem to be much for me with this event unfortunately... maybe I will farm some for reputation until revered (that'd mean less arcane crystals to buy).

Unfair world, mages can kill 50 or so of those in 20 seconds. Say hello to vanilla.

I have yet to see some scourge in Undercity and couldn't find a group to fight a Shadow of Doom. It's interesting to see how this event seems very small and unimportant to me now yet felt much different back in 2006.

... On a 100% unrelated note my roughly 2 years old report about Gahz'ranka's slam hitting for roughly 10x too much damage is now #confirmed, yey!

Picture sources of vanilla World of Warcraft

This is a depository of 2004-2006 pictures of World of Warcraft. More than 20 pictures or so must be present for a link to be included here.

Miscellaneous and limited amount of pictures

http://vilesmile.blogspot.ch/
http://pifactorial.blogspot.ch/2005_07_01_archive.html
http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/thread-5801.html (getting friendly with STV pirates)
http://z13.invisionfree.com/IBG/ar/f12.htm
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/world-of-warcraft-walkthrough/1100-6114179/

2005-2006, S8's depository, 500+ pictures

http://s8.org/wow/screenshots/

2005-2006, Coute's gallery, 200+ pictures

Coute's long URL

2005-Feb 2006, Novylen's/Rbo's gallery, 300+ pictures

http://gallery.novylen.net/v/rbos/warcraft/
http://gallery.novylen.net/v/rbos/warcraft/?g2_page=25

2005-2006, Project JJ's gallery, 150 pictures

http://gallery.projectjj.com/v/wow/

2005, Denvb's depository, 100+ pictures

http://denvb.eu/screenshots/wow/

2004-2005, QS's depository, 50+ pictures

https://www.rps.net/QS/SCREENSHOTS/WoW/

2005, Wowhelland's 100+ pictures

http://s299.photobucket.com/user/wowhelland/library/Vanilla%20WoW%20screenshot%20collection?sort=9&page=5

Demsix's 1900+ pictures

http://demsix.imgur.com/

2004, level 0-19 Alliance, 50 pictures or so

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/exploring-the-world-of-warcraft/1100-6093288/

2004, level 10+ Alliance warrior (mainly), 50+ pictures

http://demolishwow.blogspot.ch/2004/05/
http://demolishwow.blogspot.ch/2004_06_01_archive.html

2005, level 35-60 shaman, 50+ pictures

http://imamuwow.blogspot.ch/

2005-2006, Alliance rogue/warlock/warrior, mainly level 50+, 200+ pictures

http://www.afn.org/~afn61198/WoW/

June 2006-Dec 2006, Alliance warrior 0-60, 100 pictures

http://shield-block.blogspot.ch/2014/03/wow-memories-in-screenshots-2006.html

2005, Alliance warlock/rogue level 0-57, 50+ pictures 

http://www.ttoprpg.com/wow.htm

2004-2006, Alliance warrior (mainly), 200+ pictures

http://www.skav.org/wow/

Nov 2004-Dec 2006, level 0-40+ Alliance druid/rogue (mainly),

http://brezwow.blogspot.ch/2004/11/
http://brezwow.blogspot.ch/2004/12/
http://brezwow.blogspot.ch/2005/01/
...

Feb 2005- , level 0-60 Alliance paladin, 300+ pictures

http://chordian.net/2017/05/18/my-endeavors-in-world-of-warcraft-part-1/
http://chordian.net/2017/05/19/my-endeavors-in-world-of-warcraft-part-2/
http://chordian.net/2017/05/20/my-endeavors-in-world-of-warcraft-part-3/
http://chordian.net/2017/05/21/my-endeavors-in-world-of-warcraft-part-4/

Feb 2005, 100+ miscellaneous dungeon/raid pictures

http://www.descendantsofdraenor.com/eqdkp/plugins/gallery/picview.php?pid=19&cat_id=1

Brief experiment, chance to get 50 gold for participating in a survey versus nothing

This is a close-replication of my previous experiments on the effects of giving a 50 silver incentive to increase answer rates to a in-game World of Warcraft survey.

[Methods] The methods were similar as those previously used [1]; 50 Kronos players were identified with the first /who query and half of them were offered a random chance to get 50 gold. The reward was increased by 1000% as it was thought that it was too low to get players interested in the previous experiments.

The 2nd, 4th, 6th, ... players on the /who list (unordered) got the intervention message (incentive) and the 1st, 3rd, 5th, .... got the control message, as I previously suggested doing [2]. All messages were sent from my level 60 warlock character, "Tekai", as in previous experiments. Odd players were whispered first.

To select the player getting the 50 gold reward, all intervention players were put in a list going from 1 (first player answering) to X (last player answering) and a /random X was used once. The player with the corresponding number was then either sent the gold with in-game mails or it was traded directly.

The experiment was done on Tuesday 23rd of May 2017, 17:00 Server Time.

Control group message : "Greetings, I am making a survey to better evaluate how much latency Kronos players have and I would appreciate your participation. All answers will be kept anonymous."

Intervention group message : "Greetings, I am making a survey to better evaluate how much latency Kronos players have and I would appreciate your participation. All answers will be kept anonymous and a single randomly selected participant will be sent 50 gold by mail."

Follow-up message : "Great! How much latency (ms) do you currently have? Are you in the EU/RU/US/NA/Asia/Africa/Other?"

End message : "Thank you very much for your participation! Have a good day!"







Intervention end message : "Thank you  very much for your participation, the winner will be described in the world channel in the next 30 minutes. Have a good day!"

Further details message : "New players often wonder about the latency of the server, this survey would allow them to have an overview. Please send me a in-game mail if you want to look at the results."

Explanation message : "All participating players will be given a unique number (eg. 1 for the first to answer, 2 for the second); a single /random will then be used to define a winner when the survey ends. This player will get the 50 gold by in-game mail or trade."

[Results]  The experiment was stopped early without going on with the control intervention as the response rate was deemed too low for the intervention to be effective. A total of 21 players were whispered in the intervention group. Three (3) players were AFK and four (4) were offline.

8 players answered in the intervention (incentive) group (38.1%). The /random excluded a player due to the content of his answer and ended up with a "2", the second player in the list was thus given 50 gold, which were traded directly near the Orgrimmar bank.

No explanations or futher details messages were sent and they were not requested.

The reported latencies (ms) were as follows :

• EU: 20ms
• US: 161ms
• Unspecified location: 349ms, 27ms, 67ms,  "0ms but usually 65ms", "195-205 (best) or 95-205 (average)

[Harms] One player expressed being very unhappy about my whispers as he answered "fu".

[Conclusions]  Previous experiments ended up with slightly lower response rates (about 34%), which means the intervention (incentive) may have had a small effect. Nevertheless the potential increase was very small and unlikely to be of interest to players making in-game surveys. The latencies reported were similar as those previously identified.

Increasing the reward for participating in a survey to 50 gold and adding a chance element was not associated with an arguably important increase in participation. This strategy is thus not recommended.

Perhaps whispered players did not believe the messages were honest, or they may have thought their chances of winning were too low. The whispers might be too formal, the demand too complex (for example, very few players correctly report both country and latency) or it could be that in-game gold rewards are not as attractive as I think. A reverse approach asking players what incentives they would like or find interesting enough or what wording would be most appropriate could be helpful.

A player expressed being unhappy about my whisper. Considering the content of the whisper I sent, I suppose this reaction was due to the perhaps intrusive or disruptive nature of whispers which may break immersion or lead to a lower attention to the current activity the player was doing. While a relatively rare event (this is the first time a player answered in such a way among the 125 or so players whispered in those experiments), it is possible that other players were equally unhappy yet did not tell me about it. Strategies to prevent such events (or better notice them) could be sought, such as using different communication strategies (e.g. in-game mails), although they may further reduce participation, increase costs and bother players even more. Alternatively one could think that whatever one does in game some players will be bothered by it and this is not a good enough reason to stop. It is also conceivable that in-game surveys (all of them or some of them) end up bothering players more than they benefit them and this question could deserve future attention.

Acknowledgments

I (Tekai) used to play on the Kronos I server as a level 60 warlock for months in a progression raiding guild, I wrote extensively about it, contributed to bugreports, quality improvements, discussions and have published the (now completed) Kronos WoW Comics (humoristic drawings inspired from the server) on the official Project Kronos Facebook page. I don't have any financial interest in this survey and its results and I am not financed in any way by the Kronos team or anyone else.

This is mostly an exercise of curiosity and for fun (yes my fun is wierd), please don't take it as a scientific study, but go ahead and do refer to it if you find it interesting.

Data :

Intervention group, 21 players whispered, 3 AFK, 4 offline

17:05:37 [W From] <5:_>: 349ms
17:05:52 [W From] <47:_>: fu
17:05:57 [W From] <32:_>: 27ms atm
17:07:41 [W From] <60:_>: 67
17:08:32 [W From] <60:_>: 161 US
17:09:20 [W From] <14:_>: EU, 20ms lag now
17:10:44 [W From] <59:_>: 0ms it says, but usually its 65ms
17:13:28 [W From] <AFK><60:_>: 190 is the best i get, 95-205 is average, 195-205*

Whispers were not sent to the control group.

Thinking about Kronos unknown long-term future

I have been wondering for some time about the Kronos vanilla server future. More specifically, what will happen to it in the long-term (months/years) when it will reach the last vanilla patch, with Naxxramas released?

From what I can remember, a large amount of players complained on Blizzard's servers when there were no patch or updates for a long time (with the caveat that patches were expected). Is this what will happen? Would players organize events or something to keep new things happening?

Are there going to be players so over-geared with best in slots items that premades will once again cause troubles in Battlegrounds? The difference between new and old players in PvP will be even greater than it has been before. What will happen if this is the case? Special queues for premades, just like Blizzard did with twink players that have decided to stop getting experience gains?

How about bind on equip items coming from high-level raids? The more players raid Naxxramas, AQ and BWL, the cheaper the epic items coming from those raids will become, as will epic crafted items. At some point, from a gear point of view, Molten Core or Ahn'Qiraj 20man can be skipped. Is this a problem for new players? Are we going to see a decline in people running some raids?

When players have the best items and mounts, what do they then spend their gold on? Are we going to see some players with so massive amounts of gold that they could get a monopoly over large parts of the Auction House? Will this raise prices to a large extent instead of seeing them go down?

With all those players with max-profession skills, will the price of Moonclothes, Transmutes and Refined Deeprock Salt go down due to large amounts of alt-moneymaking-machines?

Are PvE players going to quit once done with Naxxramas and all previous raids? Will they continue until all their characters have all possible best-in-slots? What will keep them motivated to run AQ40 again for the 40th time?

With all the PvP players already having a Warlord title, is it going to lose its prestige? Are PvP players going to lose interst in trying to get it? Will they keep doing PvP ? For how long?

Assuming Kronos continues to stand up among the constant chaotic activity of WoW private servers, I will certainly be very happy to follow how things go on. *Curiosity*

Videos of retail sources for vanilla WoW - Searches done

[Last updated 15th May 2017]

This is a list of places I have extensively (from beginning to end) searched for relevant vanilla WoW videos. The goal is to not make the same searches too many times. Our time is finite.

Google video searches :

• [2005-2006] "wow night elf"
• [2005-2006] "warcraft night elf"
• [2005-2006] "darkshore wow"
• [2005-2006] "mulgore wow"
• [2005-2006] "loch modan"
• [2005-2006] "warcraft quest"
• [2005-2006] "tauren"
• [2005-2006] "redridge"
• [2005-2006] "stonewatch"
• [2005-2006] "lakeshire" 
• [2005-2006] "deadwind" 
• [2005-2006] "silverpine" 
• [2005-2006] "ilgalar"
• [2005-2006] "wow level" 
• [2005-2006] "teldrassil" 
• [2005-2006] "warcraft level"
• [2005-2006] "西部荒野" (= Westfall)
• [2005-2006] "洛克莫丹" (= Loch Modan)
• [2005-2006] "泰达希尔" (= Teldrassil)
• [2005-2006] "银松森林" (= Silverpine Forest) 
• [2005-2006] "wow aoe"
• [-2017] "wow aoe farm 2006" 

Archive.org searches :

• [2004-2006] (movies) "redridge"
• [2004-2006] (movies) "lakeshire"
• [2004-2006] (movies) "westfall"
• [2004-2006] (movies) "elwynn"

Youtube author videos handsearched :

• raven10087
• wibgoone
• tetragrammatonx 
• Alawelle
• Kieltje
• Fojar
• jazirent
• kunadiso 
• Marcus Adams
• Mazzicc
• snakecraft
• phukkitt
• Calengurth
• azerothrevolution
• Pure Boredom
• r4nge
• 1Reaps1
• Wario
• zeusthekitty
• moosenoir
• RheyRheySSL
• De1Rekt0n
• eternalmajin
• Lutzifer666
• silverhope44
• Grislee
• gaussla
• GiveMeaDmannameicanu
• Matt Spencer
• Urano11
• seplore
• pavement55
• Inklings
• YELOTHARLOL
• veen3
• Heavyrockinmetallica
• basaza
• robstoner72
• Beardy games
• Hopscotch!
• sneaki21
• cpope123
• TheGhost81
• Gogroth
• Frontdeboeuf
• rascallacsar
• Mattson402
• ghostkill444
• Avis25
• jared earley
• Walkingshort
• Mataislik
• Jesse Gomez
• KennyBoy2000
• Shabbyorange
• Sascha Ess
• Channel DINT
• SimonFEAR
• mistydawn24
• porsche08a
• GeoGonzo
• Wiegraf
• Lynara
• amaroo
• wakanda
• Corey Chapman
• kryll89
• cronox123
• 
  

Replication 1 : Brief experiment, 50 silver for participation in a survey versus nothing

This is a direct replication of my previous experiment on the effects of giving a 50 silver incentive to increase answer rates to a in-game survey. The methods were the same as those previously used [1], with the exception that I whispered players from my /who list in reverse order this time. The players from the bottom of the /who list were first whispered the incentive question and only then were the 25 players in the upper part of the /who list whispered the question without incentives. The experiment was done on Friday 10th of March 2017, 17:17 Server Time.

This change was done because I hypothesized that the order could affect my results and reversing it in the replication would end up balancing the first experiment. For example, there could be more players willing to answer in zones beginning with different alphabetical letters. Should I try this experiment again, I would instead encourage whispering players in a different manner, like this : player 2 on the list, player 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24. And then giving out the second intervention to players 1, 3, 5, etc.

[Results] A total of 44 players were whispered, 24 in the intervention group and 20 in the control group. Players in the intervention group had a mean level of 44.4 and players in the control group a mean level of 44. A total of five (5) players were offline when whispered (1 in the intervention group and 4 in the control group) and a total of four (4) players were away from keyboard (AFK) when whispered (2 in the intervention group and 2 in the control group).

One (1) player in the control group didn't talk english and couldn't participate. Two (2) players, one in each group said I had already whispered them and decline to participate twice. One (1) player in the incentive group didn't want to get the reward twice when I whispered him on his other character, and one (1) player in the intervention group said money wasn't needed "I'm happy to help, No money neccessary, :)".

9 players answered in the intervention group (37.5%) (the player answering twice wasn't counted) and 8 in the control group (33.3%) (the player that didn't speak english wasn't taken into account, neither was the one answering twice).

Relative risks can be calculated by blindly (I know, I know...) using Medcalc [3].  Incentives were associated with a 17% (RR 1.17, 95% CI 0.52 to 2.63) higher chance of getting an answer, although the confidence interval crossed 1, which means there could be no real difference. The absolute difference was +4.2% (37.5%-33.3%).

When results from the previous experiment were combined with those new ones* (this means I assume they are similar, which could be wrong), the incentives were associated with a 7% (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.54 to 1.63) lower chance to get an answer, but again, the results could be due to chance. The absolute difference was -4% (41%-45%).

The reported latencies (ms) were as follows :

• EU : 99ms, 53ms, 45ms, 167ms, 47ms, 73ms, 50-100ms, 15-30ms
• US : 170ms, 166ms, 100-175ms, 
• RU : 50-60ms
• Unspecified location : 18ms, 195ms, 16-31ms
• One (1) player couldn't see his latency due to addons "I cant see latency, sorry" and one (1) gave a narrative answer "hi, today I have experienced some heavy lag spikes, but since tha made the network changes, latency have been good overall" and players added details "its usually good, idk what the average latency is or whatever", "there is always the weird server lag especially if you encounter ppl from NA as European".

I ended up giving out a total of 4 gold (8x50 silver).

Perhaps of interest is that no single player asked me if and where the results could be seen or what I wanted to do with them. The "further details" message was never sent to anyone.

Some players seemed particularly happy to participate and friendly "I'm happy to help", "You are doing gods work :)", "no problem thanks you too", "Greetings sir, ofc i can help out with that". I did not get negative comments about the amount being too low.

[Harms] I had to apologize twice for sending the same whispers to characters from the same players and none complained of this being a problem "hi i already said around 60 on another char, no need to send again :p, no problemo", "I have already answered on another character and answering twice would provide lackluster results, right?, No worries, You are doing gods work :)".

[Conclusions] The overall results suggest that a 50 silver incentive is associated with a lower chance of getting an answer when players are whispered to participate in an online survey. To get a definitive answer I would need a much larger sample, especially considering how the effect, if any, appears to be small.

In the very best possible scenario, with the maximum relative increase of 63% (RR 1.63), and a baseline answer rate in control groups of 34% (33.3% to 34.8% in my experiments), 50 silver incentives would lead to a 55% answer rate (0.34*1.63). This is a 21% absolute difference, which means I would have to pay about 5 players (5x50 silver = 2 gold and 50 silver) to get one more answer. And in the worst case scenario, giving the 50 silver incentive would lower the amount of players answering. I don't think that 50 silver incentives is worth it for surveys about latency. Perhaps results would be different with another kind of survey or question, or wording.

Latency appeared to be stable between experiments, even if the hour of the day and the day of the week weren't the same. I found players to be quite friendly and patient in their answers.

Acknowledgments

I (Tekai) used to play on the Kronos I server as a level 60 warlock for months in a progression raiding guild, I wrote extensively about it, contributed to bugreports, quality improvements, discussions and have published the (now completed) Kronos WoW Comics (humoristic drawings inspired from the server) on the official Project Kronos Facebook page. I don't have any financial interest in this survey and its results and I am not financed in any way by the Kronos team or anyone else.

This is mostly an exercise of curiosity and for fun (yes my fun is wierd), please don't take it as a scientific study, but go ahead and do refer to it if you find it interesting.

Data :

Intervention group, 24 players whispered, from bottom /who to top, 2 AFK, 1 offline

17:17:40 [W From] <49:_>: 99ms in EU (_)
17:18:28 [W From] <57:_>: 53 ms in EU.
17:18:33 [W From] <22:_>: dont know how to check, 45, EU
17:20:14 [W From] <17:_>: hi i already said around 60 on another char, no need to send again :p, no problemo
17:20:10 [W From] <60:_>: USE 170 ms on avg.
17:20:35 [W From] <17:_>: my average ms is 166, I live in the US on the East Coast.
17:22:09 [W From] <15:_>: I'm happy to help, No money neccessary, :), 167 UK/EU
17:23:37 [W From] <60:_>: I'm EU (_) and have 47 MS
17:24:38 [W From] <60:_>: 18ms atm
17:24:23 [W From] <60:_>: idk what to tell u its usually good, idk what the average latency is or whatever, ya i knnow mine 195 right now

Control group, 20 players whispered ,  2 AFK, 4 missing

17:26:43 [W From] <60:_>: I cant see latency, sorry
17:28:18 [W From] <60:_>: 100-175ms, usa based
17:30:05 [W From] <60:_>: I have already answered on another character and answering twice would provide lackluster results, right?, No worries, You are doing gods work :)
17:30:34 [W From] <60:_>: hi, today I have experienced some heavy lag spikes, but since tha made the network changes, latency have been good overall
17:30:59 [W From] <60:_>: hey, im from Russia and i have 50 ms atm. Usually its around 60ms
17:33:12 [W From] <2:_>: EU and right now its 73, no problem thanks you too
17:33:28 [W From] <60:_>: all from 50-100ms, but there is always the weird server lag especially if you encounter ppl from NA as European
17:33:48 [W From] <42:_>: 16-31ms
17:35:07 [W From] <8:_>: Greetings sir, ofc i can help out with that, Im in _ and my latency varies from 15ms-30ms, same to you!
17:33:32 [W From] <60:_>: sry i dont speak english

*For a total of 16 answers in the incentive group for 39 whispers and 19 answers in the control group for 42 answers.

Brief experiment, 50 silver for participation in a survey versus nothing

[Objectives] To find out how much of an effect on the percentage of players answering a survey a 50 in-game silver incentive can have when given to players agreeing to participate in a Kronos survey.

The secondary objective was to gather data on the latency players from different countries have.

[Methods] 50 players were identified with the first /who query sent to the Kronos I (K1) server on the 8th March 2017 between 12:50 and 13:10 Server Time. They were all sent whispers from my main character, a level 60 undead warlock named "Tekai". The first 25 players in the list were the intervention group and received an invitation to participate in a survey with a 50 silver reward for participation. The next 25 players in the list were the control group and received a standard invitation to participate in a survey. Participant's answers were copy/pasted on this blogpost along with their level and names were removed.

Control group message : "Greetings, I am making a survey to better evaluate how much latency Kronos I players have and I would appreciate your participation. All answers will be kept anonymous."

Intervention group message : "Greetings, I am making a survey to better evaluate how much latency Kronos I players have and I would appreciate your participation. All answers will be kept anonymous and participants will be sent 50 silver by mail."

Follow-up message : "Great! How much latency (ms) do you currently have? Are you in the EU/RU/US/NA/Asia/Africa?"

End message : "Thank you very much for your participation! Have a good day!"

Further details message : "New players often wonder about the latency of the server, this survey would allow them to have an overview. Please send me a in-game mail if you want to look at the results."

I had previously obtained 57% (survey about forum usage) [1] and 39% (survey about world channel) [2] response rates with similar methods (in-game whispers) and expected similar numbers in the control group. This experiment will be underpowered and should be interpretated as such.

[Results] A total of 45 players where whispered, 23 in the intervention group and 22 in the control group. Players in the intervention group had a mean level of 46.38 and players in the control group a mean level of 46.64. Five (5) players were offline when whispered and a total of five (5) players were away from keyboard (AFK) when whispered; I did not keep note of in which group they were. One player in the intervention group probably talked russian "Chto?" and couldn't understand my message.

8 players answered in the intervention (incentive) group (34.8%) and 11 in the control group (no incentive) (50%).

Relative risks can be calculated by blindly using Medcalc [3].  Incentives were associated with a 30% (RR 0.7, 95% CI 0.35 to 1.40) lower chance of getting an answer, although the confidence interval crossed 1, which means there could be no real difference. The absolute difference was -15.2% (34.8%-50%).

In other words sending 100 whispers with an incentive would lead to 35 answers and sending 100 whispers without it would lead to 50 answers.

The reported latencies (ms) were as follows :

• EU : 47ms, 48 ms, 88 ms and 81 ms
• NA : 140-200ms
• US : 120ms
• Oceania : 340 ms
• RU : 129ms and 65ms
• Unspecified location : 20-30ms, 60-65ms, 90-119ms, 420ms, 78ms, 81ms and 46ms
• Latency and location wasn't clearly defined for three (3) other players : "no trouble so far, well maybe sometimes but very punctual moments and didn't last more than 2 or 3 seconds, and it doesn't happen often", "latency is good" and "not sure how low my ms is atm"

I ended up giving out a total of 4 in-game gold (8x50 silver). 16 minutes was the longest amount of time before a player answered my whisper. 30 minutes after the last whisper no further answer was received and I disconnected my character.

[Conclusions] The use of a 50 silver incentive to increase answer rates to a in-game survey on Kronos I was NOT associated with a higher participation. The players NOT offered a reward for participation participated more often (11 answers in the control group vers 8 in the incentive group) but this could be due to chance due to the low sample size.

If three more players had participated in the intervention group, the conclusions could be very different. Perhaps incentives do not work, perhaps it was a too easy to answer topic for incentives to make a difference, perhaps more AFK players were whispered in the intervention group. Or something else.

On a younger server a 50 silver incentives might have a stronger effect as players haven't yet accumulated much gold. The /who queries might not offer truly random players. Players that know me by name might have a higher chance to answer the survey. Players of higher level might be less interested by money (although this didn't appear to have an effect in this experiment).

A handful of players made comments suggesting the amount of money was too low, "lol", "only 50 silver :P". Others seemed enthusiastic "lets do this", "alright", "i am listening" and happy to have participated "=)", "same!", "you too", "Np have a good day".

Acknowledgments

I (Tekai) used to play on the Kronos I server as a level 60 warlock for months in a progression raiding guild, I wrote extensively about it, contributed to bugreports, quality improvements, discussions and have published the (now completed) Kronos WoW Comics (humoristic drawings inspired from the server) on the official Project Kronos Facebook page. I don't have any financial interest in this survey and its results and I am not financed in any way by the Kronos team or anyone else.

This is mostly an exercise of curiosity and for fun (yes my fun is wierd), please don't take it as a scientific study, but go ahead and do refer to it if you find it interesting.

Data :

Intervention group, 23 players whispered :

12:50:05 [W From] <32:_>: EU, 47 ms latency
12:50:16 [W From] <60:_>: 20-30
12:50:24 [W From] <60:_>: Hi sure, im usually playing around 60-65 ping
12:50:29 [W From] <60:_>: only 50 silver :P, go ask, eeeh !@#$ I have addons so i dont see it sec I disable it, i have 48 latency and I am in ___ eu
12:50:42 [W From] <28:_>: Current latency is 119ms thou average is around 90ms
12:51:19 [W From] <51:_>: RU 129
12:56:52 [W From] <60:_>: EU, not sure how low my ms is atm
13:09:35 [W From] <20:_>: oh, i had no trouble so far, well maybe sometimes but very punctual moments and didn't last more than 2 or 3 seconds, and it doesn't happen often

Control group, 22 players whispered

13:00:05 [W From] <60:_>: 420 ms, sometimes i spike to 1337
13:00:10 [W From] <60:_>: 120ms New York, USA
13:00:15 [W From] <60:_>: 65 ms, RU
13:00:36 [W From] <60:_>: 78ms
13:02:48 [W From] <38:_>: ocenia 340ms
13:03:35 [W From] <60:_>: 88MS/EU
13:05:20 [W From] <47:_>: 81
13:05:25 [W From] <9:_>: latency is good
13:05:55 [W From] <55:_>: 81ms right now, i'm in EU
13:07:13 [W From] <4:_>: Just started an hour ago, don't really know if I can do anything, 46ms
13:10:50 [W From] <60:_>: I usually have 140 to 200 MS.. as NA

Vanilla WoW Scourge Invasion 2006 references

As finding vanilla videos for the scourge invasion has proven difficult, I have decided to compile a helpful list of all references I can find about it in a single blogpost.

When?

During the 2006 vanilla Scourge invasion (patch 1.1, in June/July 2006), several regions come under attack from the scourge (nov 2006 Wowwiki).

What and where?

Scourge crysals spawn in the Eastern Plaguelands (6 spots), Burning Steppes (6), Blasted Lands (6), Tanaris (9), Azshara (4), and Winterspring (3) (nov 2006 Wowwiki). Locations of the crystals can be seen on the following screenshot : 2006 picture from Wowwiki.

Scourge crystals are floating crystals with a purple rune underneath and 5 purple fires surrounding them. About 15-45 scourge creatures spawn around it. Usually with two different types of creatures, evenly distributed in a circle around the crystal : Skeletal Shocktroopers/Spectral soldiers, Skeletal shocktrooper/Ghoul berserker (June 2006 picture, July 2006 video).

Some scourge crystals have necropolis floating over them (June 2006 video). During the Scourge Invasion, numerous high-level zones are under attack by one or two flying Necropoleis each. The zones under attack have purple skull markers on the continent-level maps (Nov 2006 Wowwiki).

There are also Necropoleis over the major cities. The ones over the major cities seem to be permanent but they only spawn low level scourge for the introductory quest (Nov 2006 Wowwiki).  Further, they are attacking the two 'Human' cities; Stormwind and Undercity (June 2006 post).

When the scourge creatures/minions around a crystal are killed, a blue spell gets cast and travels towards the crystal (July 2006 video) and weakens the necrotic shards (Nov 2006 Wowwiki). You have to kill about 100 [minions], if not more, of the undead to fully destroy it... When the Necrotic Crystal is 'destroyed', it is replaced by a 'Damaged Necrotic Crystal' that four Cultist Engineers appear around and begin to repair. If you leave the Damaged Crystal being repaired by the Cultists alone for a time, it will be repaired and the event starts all over again. (June 2006 post).

This guys [minions] spawn SUPER fast too 4 mages was at 1 camp lastnight and we all had no troubles with pulls (Sept 2006 guide). How long do you estimate it takes (on average) to make one camp disapear? You are looking at 20-30 minutes with a large group, faster if you have more people, slower if you have less. It is ENTIRELY based on how fast you kill the undead that spawn around it, and then how fast you take out the Cultist/Shadow (Aug 2006 guide).

Each time a scourge crystal is broken, the Argent Dawn offers increasingly more powerful blessings (nov 2006 Wowwiki). Destroying all four Shadows of Doom will destroy the Necrotic Shard, heal nearby players for 10,000, grant them a powerful buff, and stop new Scourge from spawning there (at least for a short time) (Nov 2006 Wowwiki). Destroying all the Necrotic Shards attached to a Necropolis will destroy the Necropolis. Destroying all the Necropoleis in a zone will cause that zone to no longer be under attack. The Scourge will eventually deploy more Necropoleis however, so clearing a zone does not mean it is safe forever (Nov 2006 Wowwiki). But alas, our successes were short lived as the ziggurats were again replaced within just a few hours of their destruction (June 2006 blog).

At any rate, the clearest indication of a new batch of beasties comes when "The Mouth of Kel Thuzad" shouts to his minions to push forward once more (June 2006 IGN).

Those who wish to take up arms against the undead invaders should speak with a representative of the Argent Dawn to learn what regions need help and how the defense is holding up (nov 2006 Wowwiki). NPCs near Argent Dawn tents in the major cities will note where the Necropoleis are attacking, and how many are in each zone (Nov 2006, Wowwiki).

Creatures and bosses

Argent Dawn?
NPCs near Argent Dawn tents in the major cities will note where the Necropoleis are attacking, and how many are in each zone (Nov 2006, Wowwiki).
The npc said we had completed 125 battles...so 25 left (June 2006 post).

Argent Quartermaster (ID)

Argent Dawn paladin for Alliance (ID) and Argent Dawn Initiates for the Horde (ID)
Text : "The first steps of our fight against the Scourge go well. We have had some successes, and hopefully my assistance can aid you in bringing future success to the battle." And offers the option "Give me one of your magic items.", this gives the player 3x Lesser Mark of the Dawn - Although this option will vary depending on the server progress with the invasion (June 2006 blog).

Argent Recruiter (ID)

Argent Outfitter (ID)

Argent Messenger (ID)

Argent Emissary (ID)

Cultist engineer
Neutral.
Can be talked with, require 8 necrotic runes to convert into a shadow of doom, the cultist then disappears, a shadow of doom appears and can be attacked after 5 seconds or so, it does not attack the player on spawn (2006 video).
"Use 8 necrotic runes and disrupt his ritual." is the text option (2006 video).
Spawn in groups of 4 around a crystal when the crystal is damaged.
Cast a purple channeling spell towards necrotic crystals when spawned (June 2006 video).

Scourge crystals (Necrotic shards, ID 16136)
100 health.
Can be targeted, level 60, agressive (June 2006 video).
Bolts of energy regularly travel from the crystal to the necropolis over it (every 30 seconds or so) (June 2006 post).
The shard itself cannot be directly damaged (June 2006, post).

Damaged necrotic shards (ID )
Can be targeted, level 60, agressive (2006 video).
The shard itself cannot be directly damaged (June 2006, post).

Skeletal shocktrooper (ID 16299)
Level 58-60.
3965 health according to addons (2006 video).
Drops between 2 silver 40 copper and 5 silver 20 copper (July 2006 video).
Can be slowed with frost, frozen (July 2006 video).
Hit between 140-285 / melee hit, unreduced damage (July 2006 video).
The undead are non-elite and grant 5 Argent Dawn reputation until the end of Honored, unlike normal undead (Nov 2006, Wowwiki).
Can be kited very far away from his spawnpoint (June 2006 video).

Ghoul berserker (ID 16141)
Hit between 140-265 / melee hit, unreduced damage (June 2006 video).
Can be slowed with Wing Clip and Concussive shot (June 2006 video).
Enrages at about 30% health (June 2006 video).
The undead are non-elite and grant 5 Argent Dawn reputation until the end of Honored, unlike normal undead (Nov 2006, Wowwiki).
Can be kited very far away from his spawnpoint (June 2006 video).

Spectral soldier
Can be slowed, frozen (July 2006 video). 
The undead are non-elite and grant 5 Argent Dawn reputation until the end of Honored, unlike normal undead (Nov 2006, Wowwiki).

Shadow of doom
Level 61 elite.
48'000 health and 2434 mana according to addons (2006 video).
Hit between 1075-? / melee hit, unreduced damage (June 2006 video). 2612 maximum (crit?) according to addons (2006 video).
Cast a drain mana/health spell that hits for roughly 142 health / hit and slows movement, roughly every 15-45 seconds (June 2006 video).
Cast Fear on a single target, roughly every 15-30 seconds (June 2006 video, June 2006 2nd video).
Can be rooted, frozen (June 2006 video).
Can be slowed with frostbolt (June 2006 video).
Cannot be feared but not immune to death coil (2006 video).
Can be kited very far away from his spawnpoint (June 2006 video).
Drops low amounts of silver, around 1-5 silver (June 2006 video) (2006 video).
Upon its defeat, the Shadow of Doom will yield a Corrupter's Scourgestone, 50 reputation with the Argent Dawn, 30 Necrotic Runes, and has a chance to drop a chest piece of the Undead Slaying set. The drop rate on the chest isn't great. I've seen a drop rate of around 1 in 4 in the past, but currently have killed 15 in a row with no chest drop (none at all, not just my armour type) (Nov 2006 Wowwiki).
Kill it and the Crystal takes 25% damage (May 2006 beta testers).

Pallid Horror
Level 60 elite.
Neutral (July 2006 video).
Spawns in cities.
Casts a mass fear against close enemies, roughly of 2 second duration (July 2006 video).
Can be slowed with Wing Clip and Concussive shot (July 2006 video).

Patchwork terror (ID 16382)
Level 60 elite.
Neutral (July 2006 video).
Spawns in cities.
Can be slowed with Wing clip, concussive shot (July 2006 video).
Casts a mass fear against close enemies, of short duration (July 2006 video).
Can be stunned (July 2006 video).

Lumbering horror
Level 61 rare, random spawn around crystals.
Agressive.
8435 health according to addons (2006 video).

Flameshocker
Level 60.
Neutral.
Spawns in cities.

Skeletal trooper
Level 9 (June 2006 blog).
I go outside, see the bright purple circle on the ground there and kill dozens and dozens of level 6-8 Undead that pop up, but never got a single shard to drop. What do I need to do to get those? "   I probably had to kill 30-35 of them before I got 3 of the shards to drop (Aug 2006 guide).

Spectral apparition
Level 7 (June 2006 blog).
I go outside, see the bright purple circle on the ground there and kill dozens and dozens of level 6-8 Undead that pop up, but never got a single shard to drop. What do I need to do to get those? "   I probably had to kill 30-35 of them before I got 3 of the shards to drop (Aug 2006 guide).

Balzaphon
The Stratholme Boss, found by Harmonia, is a Lich that patrols around the fountain in the main area next to the small chapel and the Side Gate to Stratholme.His name is Balzaphon, and he kicks major butt. Serious frostbolt spammer that does a ton of damage. Drops any of three +damage and healing blues, including an amazing staff and a +22 dam necklace called 'Chains of the Lich' and TWO! TWO! Corrupter's Scourgestones (July 2006 comment).
VERY EASILY farmable, right next to the service entrance (June 2006 comment).

Lord Blackwood

Revanchion
Revanchion is found in DM West patrolling the hallway after Tendris Warpwood (you don't have to kill him).  He does a frost nova and has frost armor (slows your attack and movement). The strange thing was that he dodged/parried/blocked around 80% of all my attacks. Not sure if it was a bug or not. He hit me on average for 300 damage with 28.3% DR so he's not exactly a heavy hitter. And he gave 25 AD rep when killed (July 2006 comment).
Note : If someone can find the video "Hunter.Solo.Revanchion.Divx.avi" that would be incredible.

Scorn
He hits normally for his level(32 Elite), and he has some nasty Frost AE Spells for even level groups trying to tackle him (July 2006 comment). 
Location: Scarlet Monastery Graveyard, after Bloodmage Thalmos has been slain he comes walking to the crypt (June 2006 post).

Sever
The new one in Shadowfang Keep is a Scourge Abomination. His name is Sever, and he is found in the area formerly patrolled only by Ghosts near where the Butcher and the Baron are. There are no prereqs to his appearance. He is level 25 (July 2006 comment).  

Lady Falther'ess
Location: Razorfen Downs, cell area, only after Amemnar has been slain (June 2006 post).

Quick personal comment : 150 battles seems super short assuming hard-working players with better knowledge of the mechanics and well prepared for this invasion. There is a risk it might be very, very short-lived on private servers.

Rétention au long-terme du contenu d'une illustration à but éducatif

Le billet qui suit représente une anecdote.

J'ai réalisé le 23 septembre 2016 une illustration sur les styles d'apprentissage (learning styles) dans le cadre de mes dessins sur mon webcomic The Science of Cookies. Le but de celui-ci étant éducatif et la rétention au long-terme des informations offertes au moyen de bandes dessinées étant peu claire au vu de mes brèves lectures sur ce thème, j'ai décidé de m'auto-tester. Cela fait environ 4 mois depuis la création de celle-ci.

Je n'ai, à mon souvenir, pas lu en détail cette illustration après le mois de septembre (mais je peux tout à fait me tromper, la mémoire est faillible). Il m'est arrivé de brièvement arriver sur cette image en version réduite lors du visionnage d'aperçus de mes dessins publiés, mais je ne l'ai pas agrandie pour la relire. Je répète régulièrement une partie de son contenu au travers d'un programme informatique de cartes question/réponse textuelles et il peut m'être arrivé d'avoir lu des articles à ce sujet durant ces 4 mois, ce qui signifie que j'ai potentiellement reçu des rappels.

Notons également que je suis l'auteur des dessins, j'ai sélectionné les thèmes, j'ai imaginé des représentations, j'ai écrit, dessiné et lu les articles de référence et passé un temps considérable à les assembler (pas tout à fait dans cet ordre). Tous ces éléments font que je m'imagine très peu représentatif de ce que je pense être le lecteur habituel de mes illustrations. Généraliser à partir de cette anecdote ne serait pas approprié.

Explorons néanmoins ma rétention...

Je me souviens de (restitution libre, 15 minutes) :

• L'idée générale : "On apprend pas forcément mieux de la manière que l'on préfère (le style), enseigner selon le style n'est pas recommandé"
• "Les gens sont adaptables/flexibles" (= l'interprétation de ma petite amie du dessin)
• Le personnage qui mange un trop gros sandwich pour lui (on sait mal nos préférences)
• Le dessin du cercle avec divers sens, nociception, goût, etc. (on apprend avec tous les sens)
  L'arbre en schéma et réel (on apprend parfois mieux de certaines manières précises)
• Le personnage visuel qui reçoit du contenu non-visuel (des études soutiennent cela)
• "Enseigner de la manière qu'on préfère (affinité) c'est se fier au style d'apprentissage"
• Les livres, Ted-talk tous semblables (l'idée est répétée partout)
• Le bonhomme qui ignore le rouge et ne voit que le vert (on ne parle pas des critiques)
• Le bonhomme qui interprète un triangle-carré comme triangle (on perçoit comme preuves ce qui ne l'est pas forcément)
• Brièvement un schéma qui dit que les styles semblent évidents et qu'on y croit donc, que l'on regarde ce qui le montrerait, qu'on s'y attend et qu'on nous enseigne à s'y fier alors que tous s'y fient, que l'école dit de s'y fier, sans esprit critique et les anecdotes reconfirment au fil du temps.
• Le dessin qui montre une multitude d'options pour enseigner (ne pas essayer de s'adapter à tous?)
• L'enseignant qui montre un zèbre et un pikachu (j'ai oublié le sens de celui-ci...)
• L'argent dilapidé, le temps perdu, le coût des formations
• L'enfant qui n'a pas droit d'apprendre la guitare alors qu'il aime cela (on limite les choix possibles)
• "Les styles ont une utilité, pour motiver par exemple. Il y a une multitude de définitions variées du style, pas toujours compatibles. Le style peut changer. On peut essayer de se tester ou de tester la classe, voir si on apprend mieux comme ça. (je ne sais plus les détails précis du test)"

Ce que j'ai apparemment oublié : 

• L'image d'introduction avec les personnages qui regardent ce que l'autre écrit
• L'ensemble des dessins indiquant les facteurs qui influencent l'apprentissage (facteurs de l'apprenant, de l'enseignant, stratégies validées, facteurs contextuels, nature du contenu enseigné)
• Les élèves qui trouvent le dessinateur bon enseignant (nous partageons des points communs)
• Le dessin du personnage intuitif avec 1+1 = 11 (on aime les explications intuitives)
• Le zèbre et pikachu expliquaient l'envie de s'adapter aux diversités des élèves
• Dans le schéma, il me manque les étapes a) chaque élève est unique, b) oubli des expériences ne confirmant pas l'idée et lorsque les autres facteurs ont une influence
• Le personnage qui explique avec 5000 billes rouges (enseignement adapté non bénéfique)
• "Individualiser ou présenter de diverses manières reste utile, parfois même une version est la plus efficace pour tous. Les préférences et les personnalités ne sont pas la même chose. Un bénéfice suffisant pour changer les pratiques n'est pas encore prouvé. +Détails précis du test."

Oublier reste un processus normal et au vu de la quantité d'informations possibles à retenir, il n'y a rien de surprenant à ce que j'aie perdu certains des détails et des éléments. Dans l'ensemble le message du fond a été retenu (non-recommandation des styles d'apprentissages pour enseigner) ainsi que des éléments de la plupart des parties illustrées (en dehors de l'introduction/facteurs). De nombreux dessins (10/20, soit la moitié) ont malheureusement été oubliés.

Dans la mesure où un lecteur "habituel" de mes dessins aurait parcouru l'illustration avec beaucoup moins d'attention que moi, durant moins de temps et n'a pas lu la littérature citée, je m'interroge sur l'efficacité du point de vue de la rétention d'information d'une lecture unique, même si cette petite expérience reste anecdotique.

J'ai ainsi retenu parmi les dessins : 0/6 dessins de l'introduction et des facteurs. 4/5 des images de la partie "Pourquoi". 3/5 des images de la partie "Pourquoi cette idée persiste". Ainsi que 3/4 des images de la partie "En quoi est-ce important". Le sens de ceux-ci était préservé sauf dans un cas (pikachu et zèbre, message oublié).

Je suis pourtant surpris d'avoir pu oublier l'introduction et les dessins des facteurs, ceux-ci représentaient pourtant un large espace de l'illustration, peut-être étaient-ils trop "sérieux" et neutres d'un point de vue association émotionnelle (valence) ou bien leur rôle était-il moins important à mes yeux (importance perçue), l'absence de phrase pourrait être plus complexe (absence de narratif) ou encore y avait-il trop de texte et d'options superflues (surplus d'information). Je ne crois pas avoir passé moins de temps pour autant à les imaginer, les lire et les dessiner (temps). Si j'avais vu l'illustration par erreur durant ces 4 mois, la partie que j'aurais eu le plus de probabilité de voir aurait justement été cette introduction.

Peut-être ai-je oublié le dessin par rapport aux points communs et celui avec les billes rouges parce qu'en rétrospective j'ai du mal à faire le lien entre ceux-ci et le texte associé (incohérence du message). De la même manière il me semble que ma difficulté avec le zèbre et pikachu était la multiplicité des sens possibles (ex: présenter de manières différentes, illustrer, captiver l'attention, etc.) (multiples sens concurrents).

Bien que j'aie pu me souvenir que l'idée d'un style d'apprentissage était évidente, je ne me suis pas rappelé du dessin du personnage intuitif. Je n'ai pas d'explication particulière pour celui-ci.

J'imagine que le schéma contenait trop d'éléments et manquait soit de narratif, soit d'illustrations pour être entièrement retenu (représentation visuelle).

Selecting a WoW private server : towards common quality criteria

Introduction : Many players are looking for the right private server to select, how to decide on one isn't clear and there is no systematic guidance on how to do that. Servers keep trying to improve their quality but few quantitative data can guide them on what to prioritize.
Methods : I sent whispers to 450+ K1 and K2 characters asking them about their top 3 priorities when selecting a private server and gathered their answers.
Results : 80 players answered my survey, with 76 providing priorities. 19 broad categories were then isolated. The top 3 criteria were : #1 Population (amount & type) (n=42), #2 Scripts bugs & updates (n=25) and #3 Community (friendly, active) (n=21). 
Discussion :

Introduction 

Many players are looking for the right private server to select, how to decide on one isn't clear and there is no systematic guidance on how to do that. Servers keep trying to improve their quality but few quantitative data can guide them on what to prioritize. My goal was to systematically collect qualitative data on evaluation criteria so as to be able to create a checklist of quality criteria that could inform server improvements and server comparisons (in the hope of informing future changes and website design).

I believe that by asking enough players the most important server quality factors and criteria will emerge. I decided to focus on actual players in-game to prevent contaminations if the answers were on a forum (eg. players see the previous answer and answer exactly the same) and so as to reflect the current playerbase (instead of potential players which might never join at all or players on forums which I believe to not be representative of typical private server players).

Methods

I sent in-game whispers to all the players appearing in the /who list from two of my level 60 Horde characters on Kronos 1 (K1) and a level 1-6 Alliance character on Kronos II (K2) at multiple occasions during weekends (from 2-15th January 2017). I stopped whispering from my low level character as I was getting muted much faster due to different communication restrictions. I had originally planned to get 100 answers (convenience sample) or stop once content saturation seemed likely but decided to stop at 80 answers due to lack of patience. Over 450+ characters were whispered (I didn't track this number with precision), with about 80% of them on K1, which leads to an answer-rate of about 17.78% (80/450). I did not apply a level restriction to answers. The following message was sent :

Greetings, quick poll, what are the 3 most important things you look for when selecting a private server? Thank you for your help! (ignore if already asked)

Answers were copied with the EasyCopy addon and pasted on an Excel sheet. If multiple whispers from the same person were received, I combined them in a single sentence. I spread my whispers over some time to prevent being muted and kicked from the server by anti-spam scripts.

Main items were then manually extracted and combined into broad categories. This process wasn't entirely objective and a second evaluator would have been helpful.

Results

Here are the main categories of what mattered to the players I surveyed :

Category & sub-category	# Players saying it is a top 3 priority
Latency  - "No" latency/lag - "Not too much" / "low" latency/lag - "Stability" - Amount of delay (ms)	13
Cash shops & in-game advantages - Not having to pay to play (free) - No way to buy power or advantages - Clear costs of things you can buy	2
Scripts, bugs & updates - "Fast" fixes  - Actively bug fixing - Regular updates - "Quality" of scripts - Small amount of bugs  - No bugs - Will to fix small and big bugs  - "Attention to details" - Using other server's codes  - "PvP scripts"	25
Population - "Stable" amount of players - "Enough" / "good" amount of players  - "Enough" players to "farm" - "Not too many/few" players - "High" amount of players  - Amount of "active" players - Amount of players from different communities (english, czech, etc.)   - Equal amount of Horde/Alliance  - "2000-3000" players	42
Community - "Good" / "reliable" players - "Good" guilds - "Friendly", "helpful" players - "Good atmosphere" - Knowing someone / friends / IRL there - Language (czech, english)  - "Active" raiding guilds - "Active" raiding guilds in _ timezone  - "Mature" players	21
State of PvP - PvP "scene"  - "Active" PvP community - "PvP scripts" - "PvP activity"  - "Balance"	5
History of the server - "Reliability"	4
Server economy - "Auction house"	2
Being as close to the original version (blizzlike) - "Close" mechanic-wise to the original - "Everything" as it was or as close as possible / authentic - "100%" blizzlike - "Smooth" gameplay - Correcting bugs that existed in vanilla - "Upgrades" over the original WoW	14
Reputation - "Recommended" server - "Good" reputation	2
Support, server team and Game Masters - "Active" GMs - Dedication to the server/job - "Good" support - "Quick" replies - How the server is managed - "Reliability" - "Serious" / "reliable" team - Access to customer services - "Attitude" of GMs - Presence of a community manager	12
Content - Regular updates - "Good" /  "Quality" content - New content regularly released - "Fast" releases - Amount of content available - "Hard" content	10
Server stability - "Good"  - "Reliability" - Knowing the server won't be shut down - "Low" downtime - Server costs / free to play	19
Rates (experience, gold, etc.) - "Low" rates (1x or lower) - "Quick" leveling rates (5x)	6
Special or additional events -  "Interesting" events - Amount of events / frequency	2
Ease of use / Access - Easy to install - Easy to join the server - No queues to join the server	2
Expansion - Vanilla expansion - Patch	2
Spam - No spam	1
Miscellaneous - Modified respec costs (5g) -  Race / Faction change - "Fun"	3

I tried my best to separate items into categories, but the process was prone to errors (eg. does "community" mean the player wants a "friendly" community, a certain amount of players or both?), it should nevertheless give a correct overall impression. Note that some categories are very likely linked, like scripts and being "blizzlike" (whatever this means), or bugs and active GMs or economy and population.

A couple players asked further questions about the goal of my survey, wondered if I was member of the Kronos team and thanked Kronos for their work and efforts.

Two (2) players complained that my whispers were bothering them. This was partly due to me sending whispers twice during the same day to the same players. I tried to apologize and explain the limitations of my technique (double-checking that I haven't sent a message to a character already was too time-consuming). A few players answered jokes or meaningless content, which I discarded and ignored. One player mentioned he would talk to a gamemaster about my behavior but I didn't get whispered by them at any time.

Discussion

This is to my knowledge the largest survey about player's preferences and quality criteria when selecting a World of Warcraft private server (although I admit I didn't search much due to being more interested in my project).

Each player being different, each one has different priorities, this was very clear in the answers of players (eg. "no bugs no bugs no bugs" versus only "population"). But on average some categories were much more important to players than others (eg. Spam n = 1 and Population n = 42). While players have priorities, this doesn't mean the ones they most value is the most important. As an example Population is ranked before Server stability but there cannot be a server population if the server is always offline. Nevertheless their attention is likely to be focused on their main quality criteria and how it changes over time (eg. more or less population).

Some players wished for entirely different things (eg. "no changes" and "modified respec costs"), had sometimes unrealistic expectations (eg. "no bugs" and "no latency") or were looking for things that are highly subjective and hard to define (eg. "fun", "good server", "100% blizzlike"). Few criteria were objectively described. Among those I could find : "No queues to join the server", "Faction change (access to)" and  "Vanilla expansion".

It is not clear how much this survey would reflect the opinion of potential players not on the server (or any private server at all), players from other servers or players on forums. Players that did not answer might have had different priorities. It should be kept in mind that priorities are likely to change over time; in this survey very few players said spam was a priority but back when goldsellers were talking on the world channel and whispering players every minute this would have been different.

Interestingly to me, transparency (how decisions are made, what money is spent on what, what is happening behind the scenes, current online per faction players, etc.), clear plans for the worst and the future (DDoS/loss of players/massive increase of players/loss of GMs/cheat/etc.), vision for the future, rules, "attractive" website, server language, raiding hours, strong presence from leader/admin, active online community (Twitter, forums, etc.), impartiality from moderators, lack of trolls on forums, pathfinding script, trust and code-sharing didn't clearly emerge. This is probably due to me asking for "quick" answers, which had the downside of being broad and not very specific. But I fear that asking for more details would further reduce the amount of players answering.

Players that want to introduce a server can use the identified criteria when discussing a server. As an example, considering how Latency is high on the list, it is surprising that so few server websites display any information about it. Same goes with downtime, as servers currently only show uptime (time online) which is not the same thing.

Next step : Making objective criteria for each category.

Supplementary data

20:41:29 [W From] <39:1>: dont have lag, have balance and dont pay to play
20:42:55 [W From] <11:2>: Hello friend. Good community, good servers and more awesome things
20:45:06 [W From] <60:3>: 1) Blizzlike mechanics 2) Fast fixes of bugs 3) Lag-free
20:45:21 [W From] <60:4>: stability, and reccomendations
20:46:24 [W From] <57:5>: i am happy with the game . i have no opinion
20:49:00 [W From] <60:6>: 1 player base, 2 do they fix bugs, have active gms, 3 do I know anyone on the server
20:49:37 [W From] <20:7>: good and stable player base,staff dedication and constant updates.
20:50:04 [W From] <42:8>: well actually this is the first private server that i join in like 10 years so... i dont actually look for something specific... just heard that I can plat wow vanilla here :D, and of course I do like that it is Blizzlike rates...the closer to the original game... the better
20:49:41 [W From] <17:9>: #1 a good player base ( need a good amount of players to play the game good , #2 a bug free server( think about dungeons and quest or even server events, and dont really know a third reason xD, if these 2 things are spot on then hanging around till the end of the server
20:50:41 [W From] <27:10>: 1: No mods, everything as it was. 2: Population 3: server Stability
20:50:56 [W From] <36:11>: Friendly community, stability of servers and new content being released timely
20:55:05 [W From] <60:12>: im not selecting private servers, I hear about them by accident and thats it
20:55:27 [W From] <60:13>: pop scripts
20:57:05 [W From] <60:14>: 1. "Atmosphere" / Friends / Social Aspects 2. Pvp Scene 3. Quality of scripting
22:42:59 [W From] <18:15>: population, reliability, scripting
22:42:54 [W From] <20:16>: I dont play them very often, I had this one sent to me from a friend and have been enjoying it, I guess just one that doesnt have a ton of bug
22:43:54 [W From] <7:17>: This is my first try with a privvate server, friends sugestd i
22:47:02 [W From] <1:18>: scripting, population and speed of releasing content
22:49:02 [W From] <26:19>: czech comunity, population, vanilla wow
22:50:04 [W From] <60:20>: population, stability and content
22:53:49 [W From] <60:21>: only 1 thing, there should be my friends playing
22:53:49 [W From] <35:22>: High Population, Smooth Gameplay (as close to retail as possible) and serious admins.
22:54:08 [W From] <60:23>: support, stability, authentic
22:55:06 [W From] <22:24>: Authenticity, Volume as it pertains to the player base and some sense of security (Knowing that the server isn't under constant threat of being shut down), Those are my 3, hope I've been of some help.
22:59:40 [W From] <7:25>: 1-low rate because it's more fun to lvl up, 2-good content that i like, 3-good online
22:59:53 [W From] <2:26>: enough players, stable performance, ongoing development
23:00:05 [W From] <53:27>: 1) where irl friends are playing and that's pretty much all sorry
23:00:47 [W From] <36:28>: customer service, the willingness to fix any bug big or small, and population, or quality of customer server I should say
23:00:08 [W From] <3:29>: number of active players, ethnic composition of players(language etc.) and type of server ofc, expansion, xp rate..
09:51:38 [W From] <10:30>: Server  stability, population, and authenticity to vanilla (minus bugs)
09:51:41 [W From] <60:31>: population, active pvp scene, equaly divided sides horde / alliance, active raiding guilds in my own timezone, + interesting events dont hurt as well to keep the people entertained, + last thing not to spam good GM support and quick reply
09:55:52 [W From] <10:32>: Fun, versatility, and population. Ty for all the great work!!
09:57:39 [W From] <14:33>: latency, population, and hoping it doesn't get shut down by blizzard. A good community doesn't hurt but you said three things.
09:58:14 [W From] <60:34>: stability, scripting, population
09:59:32 [W From] <24:35>: 1 server reliaility; no lag or not much lag.2. A decent amount of players not too many bt not to few either. 3 Mature palyers.
10:02:45 [W From] <23:36>: population, bugs, content.
10:02:50 [W From] <60:37>: GM attitude, thats all it matters
10:03:28 [W From] <14:38>: mostly just scripting and population
10:08:04 [W From] <58:39>: 1. a bug-free, authentic recreation of the original wow 2. a friendly, helpful, mature community, there's no 3 :) , that's all i want :)
14:27:16 [W From] <1:40>: friendly community, quality, latency
14:27:38 [W From] <60:41>: stability, population and server staff
14:27:58 [W From] <60:42>: stability, no lag, no bugs
 14:32:19 [W From] <60:43>: one important thing is the population ofc, you have to merge :), andf event, there is no real event there :s, and the third thing i thnk is to lvl up quiote quicvkly , maybe x5 [...] they may need a real community manager, but i know that is really diffucul and they did a great great works
14:32:22 [W From] <60:44>: scipting, non toxic comunity, good guilds.
14:32:28 [W From] <34:45>: stability, AH, ppl
14:38:44 [W From] <13:46>: Population, Active Raiding Guilds, Active GMs
14:39:14 [W From] <60:47>: 1. playing on server with irl friends, so community in generel, 2. server stability and i like how some things are changed from vanilla, like respeccing talents costs 5g, so 3. must be upgrades from retail version
14:41:37 [W From] <13:48>: Greetings. I'd say the number of active members, the activity of the GM's (do they fix bugs) and the general content (which expansion/patch..)
14:38:54 [W From] <37:49>: uhhh...scripting, attention to detail (quest accuracy, etc), and community
14:51:55 [W From] <60:50>: To be honest this is the first time I'm playing on a private server so i'm not really an expert on that topic :) I'd say that not having too many bugs, having a population that make you able to farm the content and a good support from gm
20:33:17 [W From] <31:51>: hmm.. low latency, no overcrowding, and low downtime!
20:33:29 [W From] <60:52>: to have 0 lag :D, and just to have fun, noting special
20:33:39 [W From] <51:53>: really if it is just like the old game and if there are a good amount of people playing it
20:39:08 [W From] <60:54>: community (e.g. highly populated), 1x rate, no buy to win
20:39:08 [W From] <60:55>: how goods its scripted, content (vanilla prio), costs
20:39:30 [W From] <60:56>: reliable people and a good guild
20:40:14 [W From] <3:57>: easy setup, good community,free
20:39:50 [W From] <35:58>: Yello, its 1. Population, 2. Stability 3. Bug free & functioning properly
20:40:44 [W From] <2:59>: community, how well it is maintained, and population
20:45:37 [W From] <60:60>: heyo, 1) population 2) stability 3) number of bugs and how much content is available
20:45:45 [W From] <27:61>: no bugz
20:46:16 [W From] <60:62>: How many players are playing at the server, race / faction change and service from the GM:D
20:50:30 [W From] <60:63>: number of people, lag and real xp while leveling
20:50:34 [W From] <52:64>: integrity, reliablity, ease of use
20:50:44 [W From] <32:65>: population, latency and economy I would say
20:51:23 [W From] <22:66>: Hardmode, a decent sized community and no ques, I guess
20:51:35 [W From] <29:67>: population...I like it mid lvl, not too high, 1x xp...has to be this setting for xp, almost no or no change from vanilla settings, thats all I look for friend
09:51:43 [W From] <60:68>: reputation, support, community
09:52:21 [W From] <1:69>: Hi. 1. Lag/MS 2. Scripting 3. Pop (2 - 3k seems optimal)
09:55:04 [W From] <7:70>: 1. Skripting 2. Is it really Blizzlike??? 3. Population
09:59:02 [W From] <60:71>: well i used to play on rebirth but they are closing on the 26th of march so i came here cos i had a spare 60 here, it had way better scripting but they say they will release there codes so hopefully this server will use some
09:59:19 [W From] <24:72>: number of players, history of realm, and community, i play on twinstar realms for 5 years
09:59:24 [W From] <9:73>: sorry im completly new to wow im only trying this because my friend swears i cant enjoy the new wow in the same way i would if i played private servers LOL
10:05:56 [W From] <60:74>: community, latency, pvp
10:07:13 [W From] <60:75>: scripting latency 100% blizzlike
10:08:05 [W From] <60:76>: no bugs no bugs no bugs
10:08:08 [W From] <60:77>: Not rly priorities..just helpin some lowbies with an elite qst..if i dont push buttons they die lmao
10:09:09 [W From] <60:78>: population
10:09:41 [W From] <60:79>: being able to have my pet stay with me through a zep loading screen, cant get that here, other than that its great, some mobs stuck in walls
10:11:04 [W From] <60:80>: 1) pvp scripting 2) activity of pvp 3) population