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Blizzard’s implementation of Battlegrounds was never perfect. In fact, they’re outright imperfect. From the reputation farmers in Alterac Valley to the folks who simply refuse to start or join a raid group, Battlegrounds ends up being horribly frustrating. What I didn’t realize until recently, however, is that not only do Battlegrounds have player caps, but they have player minimums as well.

After waiting in a queue to join Arathi Basin with my hunter for over half an hour, I finally get into the Basin with two or three other Alliance players. After running around and capping flags for a couple minutes, we’re greeted with the system alert of “Not enough players”, and told that the Battleground will be closed in about a minute.

Though Bleeding Hollow, where my Hunter makes his home, is a high-population server, apparently no one in the 40s-level range wanted to fight in the Basin. Fair enough. But at least allow the four people per side to attempt to have fun, rather than simply closing the only Basin server up at the moment.

To add insult to injury, after returning to Ironforge, I find that I am now flagged as a Deserter, meaning I cannot enter a Battleground for 15 minutes because I “left a battleground before it was complete”. Excuse me, Blizzard? I didn’t leave until you made me. I was perfectly content in my small-population battle before you ruined the fun for me, and then told me I couldn’t even try to have fun in another Battleground for 15 more minutes.

Fortunately, Blizzard will be fixing some things about Battlegrounds soon, such as having cross-realm Battleground servers, to ensure that queue times are shorter. Maybe that in itself will make the Battlegrounds experience less aggravating, but in the meantime, we get to continue getting screwed on the Honor we’re trying to get.

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