Choosing a realm

After that last post, I feel the need to write something more useful.

So, if you're anything like me and new to the World of Warcraft, you're about to make a character and you're sitting and looking at that list of realms, trying to decide which to choose — or how to choose.

It's a bit easier if you can whittle down your selection. If you want an RP-PVP realm, for example, there are only, like, 10 to choose from. Simple! But what if you want a normal PVE or PVP realm?

1. Decide what your goals in the game are. Do you want to roleplay or not? Do you enjoy player vs. player combat (and the gankings that go with it)? Do you prefer player vs. environment, where PVP is entirely optional and can be ignored completely? Do you want to test yourself against the hardest bosses or do you prefer to play mostly alone?

Once you have an idea of your answers, it'll be easier to narrow down your choices. If you're not sure, roll a "practice toon" on a random realm and play for a little bit to see what you like. Heck, maybe you'll get lucky on your first realm!

2. Turn to the Internets. There are a lot of resources out there to help you decide where to create a character. For example, if you are interested in PVE progression and getting into the hardest raids, you might want to check out the realm rankings on WowJutsu; they aren't perfect, but they'll give an idea of how far each realm has gotten and how many raiding guilds it has.

Another good place to do some research is on the official World of Warcraft forums, particularly the realm forums. Every realm forum generally has a PVE progression thread and most have threads listing some rare crafted gear and enchants and who in the game can make it; most of the RP realms also have character profile threads. While it's true that not everyone on the realm posts on the forums — many avoid them, in fact — you can still get something of a feel for the "personality" of a realm from their forum threads. After all, the folks in the forums are likely to be people you'll run into around Azeroth and later Outland.

The forums are also a good place to introduce yourself and ask about the realm, too. If you get honest answers along with the jokes, it's probably a decent start; if everyone's an asshole, cross that realm off your list and move on. If you're a roleplayer, be sure to check out the reviews on the roleplaying forum also.

The last places to check are WOWWiki and the Warcraft Census. WOWWiki has a page for every realm in the game. While many of the pages are not actively updated, quite a few are, and you can get an excellent idea of the realm's history and current environment from those pages. The Warcraft Census has basic realm information broken down by race and class; if you want to roll a Horde hunter, for example, you can check to see if the realm you are interested has a population imbalance — it won't be much fun if there are five Alliance players for every one Hordie, for example, or if half of the realm is hunters.

You can do some more searching, Googling guilds and stuff, but the above should about do it.

3. Create a test character. Or rather, create a character on each realm you've liked (or, you know, two or three of them if you have a list of 22 or something) and play for a little while. MOST IMPORTANTLY, go hang out in a few of the towns. If you're Alliance-side, try to go to Ironforge and Stormwind, as these seem to be the most populated. Horde-side, try Orgrimmar for the same reason.

While in town, listen to the Trade channel. If it's all trade, leave it be, but if there's other chatter, feel free to ask a few questions. If not, ask them in General. If you haven't asked on the forums already, ask simple things like how people like the realm, where good RP spots are, what the guilds are like, if it's easy to get groups for low-level instances. Or just sit back and read the chatter to see what people are talking about, how they get along, etc.

Other things to consider:
1. Population. If a server is "full," the economy is likely to be a bit better and you're more likely to be able to get groups for lowbie instances, but you'll also see more competition for quest objectives, resources (like mining nodes or herbs), and so on. If the population is heavily skewed toward the Alliance or the Horde, you might have a difficult time playing the "smaller" side, especially on a PVP server.
2. Realm age. If you want to see the opening of the gates of Ahn'Qiraj, for example, your best bet is to roll on a brand new realm, because most of the realms have completed the war effort. Older realms have more stable economies and populations, but newer realms have better openings for "server firsts" and more people running instances at the same level you are.
3. Battlegroup. If you are a PVPer and plan to hit the battlegrounds, what battlegroup a realm is in might be important. This takes a bit more searching, but you can get a general idea of what battlegroups have better reputations if you check the threads at places like arenajunkies.com and, of course, the official WOW forums.

And if you choose a realm and decide later on that you don't like it, you can always delete and re-roll or pay to transfer your characters.

I don't know if I covered everything — in fact, I probably didn't — but that's generally the stuff I check out when I feel the need to test the waters elsewhere.