"Dead Server" vs. Community

When I first started playing on Hydraxian Waterlords back in January 2020, I immediately noted how - being a medium-pop server - it was much quieter than Pyrewood Village had ever been... and that I actually quite liked that. I've been thinking about that again recently as I've had to listen to some very contradictory opinions on the current state of the server in the past few days.

I can't deny that it's probably more quiet than I've ever seen it. Last time I checked, the server's population status on the server selection screen had actually been downgraded from medium to low, and with that has come a new wave of "this server is dead" complainers in LFG chat - while there has always been the occasional troll to that effect, it's definitely a lot more prevalent now, even if to me it seems silly that those complaints are often based on evidence such as being unable to get into an Uldaman run at 2pm on a work day.

On the other hand, I honestly like it this way. I like that outside prime time, the LFG chatter isn't scrolling past so quickly that you can't take any of it in, and that people will sometimes engage in random discussions in the channel, even if they are often somewhat inane. I like that you run into the same people every so often and form new connections that way. Just today I did a random Mechanar pug where I recognised the name of a druid and reminisced about that time his hunter and my pally did all of BRD in one afternoon. Several people in the group mentioned how much they love the server, especially the newly dinged ret pally who said that he'd previously played Classic up to AQ on a different server, but that he was so much happier to be here now.

However, I can't deny that all the Debbie Downers have me a little worried. I do think it's ridiculous to declare a server with 30+ raiding guilds "dead" just because you want a population of 5-10k to be able to treat chat as your personal dungeon finder at any time of day. As I observed during the attempted Nostalrius relaunch, if you cram enough players onto a single server, player interactions and grouping become oddly impersonal regardless of a lack of automated grouping tools, and I've definitely felt some of that during Classic's busier times. I prefer my server to be classic in size too... but I do worry a bit that too many modern players might not and what that might mean for the future of Hydraxian Waterlords.