Some players have expressed their concern about the low-population of the Azshara and other servers in World of Warcraft. Most of them are worried a server merge, or worse, a complete shutdown will take place.
Among the servers included in the list are Maiev, Nazjatar, Tortheldrin, Ysondre, Coilfang,
Zuluhed, Lethon, Vashj, Anub;arak, Anetheron, Shu'halp, Garithos,
Cho'gall, Undermind, Azshara, Scilla, Alterac Mountains, Shattered
Hand, and Malorne.
Thankfully, Community Manager Nethaera got wind of this and explained that while they are aware of the low population, they have not considered any drastic moves to fix the problem on the WoW Forums. Here's her comprehensive post on Blizzard's take on the situation:
I'm going to reply to this with things I'm sure people have heard before.
First off, we realize people go to many outside sources to look up realm populations and statistics. We would like to caution you that these do not give accurate readings. The only truly accurate readings are our own of which we keep a very close watch on.
Secondly, we do keep close tabs on realms and their populations because we of course want to keep them as healthy as possible. We do several things in order to help out lower population realms at current that I know you all are aware of (even if you feel they are not effective enough).
1. We place a "recommended" tag on the realm. For new players this lets them know that it might be a great place for them to start on. For others that are looking to move from their current realm, this gives them an idea of a realm that they may enjoy moving to.
Your counter= You feel people instead avoid realms with these tags or that it instead only nets a low level population instead of the higher level population you want.
Our counter= Our results show that these tags do in fact have impact on improving the overall health of the realms and we also realize that low level players become upper level players over time.
2. We set up (on occasion) free realm transfers for people to move from high population realms to lower population realms. This may sometimes give players and even guilds a chance to consider moving someplace "fresh" to start new.
3. Paid Character Transfers- Players often move realms for many reasons. Sometimes they are looking for a quieter place to move or a place that may want them and need them. Paid Character Transfers give them that opportunity and the Recommended tag can often help narrow their focus in to a realm that may just appreciate them.
These are what we currently do to help these sorts of realms.
Yes, some people feel it's not enough. We understand what you are saying, but we are not convinced that more drastic measures such as realm mergers are a must or a right now. We will continue to keep watch on these realms. If we see reason to do more than what we are already, you can bet we will let people know of it.
So don't worry about your homelands since there aren't any major moves planned. For now, you will still be able to play on your respective realms with no worries about it being closed down. Rest assured that the CMs will give advanced warning if there are any pressing changes to your respective servers.
