Server Populations

[nobbie]

I have some questions regarding the server populations:

At the moment, there are five(?) population levels (Full, High, Medium, Low, Recommended) for the WoW servers, which tell you how crowded a server approximately is.

1.) How does "Recommended" compare to "Low"? Is "Recommended" even lower than "Low"? And if, how big is the difference in player count?

2.) Which number of players does each population level represent (approximately), i.e. what is the player range of "Recommended" or "Low"?

3.) Is a server marked as "Full" completely closed for character creation from a NEW account? For example, if my friends buy a new copy of WoW (new account), will he/she still be able to create a new, own character on a server marked as "Full" and play with me?

4.) Is there an interactive, actual realm list that shows the exact populations for both the US and the EU servers?

[Rinnhart]

3.) Is a server marked as "Full" completely closed for character creation from a NEW account? For example, if my friends buy a new copy of WoW (new account), will he/she still be able to create a new, own character on a server marked as "Full" and play with me?[right][snapback]95837[/snapback][/right]

"Full" means it's at or near the level for the queue to be active. I recall a figure around 5,000 online players as being the servers' upper end limits.

[savaughn]

1 - Recommended is basically the lowest pop server it could find for the category you requested. It could very well be a medium pop server.
2 - Blizz hasn't released this info and the census sites don't work here. The level listed is based on the number of players playing at that exact moment. Depending on the time, many servers move from medium to high or from high to full.
3 - No. I just made a new character on Tich and it's one of the highest pop servers out there. Definitely a full server and one that dips into queue level on occassion.
4 - The only one that's really out there is www.wowcensus.com and Blizz has stated repeatedly that the info on that site is invalid. That said -- it should definitely give you pretty good comparative data as long as the server in question has been updated recently.

[Concillian]

4 - The only one that's really out there is www.wowcensus.com and Blizz has stated repeatedly that the info on that site is invalid.  That said -- it should definitely give you pretty good comparative data as long as the server in question has been updated recently.
[right][snapback]95843[/snapback][/right]

I think www.warcraftrealms.com is better in terms of interactivity and ease of finding the information you're after.