Server:Emerald Dream US

The Emerald Dream server ("ED") is the largest Role-play – Player vs. Player (RPPvP) realm on the planet. It opened in September 2005 as one of three pioneering servers to combine role-play with a PvP rule set, and as of July 2016 is the only freestanding RPPvP realm left in any region of the world to have not since become a connected realm with other similar but smaller servers.

ED is by far the most successful RP realm globally at both PvP (#8 US ) and PvE progression (#24 US ) as of the conclusion of Warlords of Draenor. ED additionally has the most balanced Alliance-to-Horde player ratio of any major North American realm with its 54/46 ratio closely approximating the overall ratio of players in the game generally on all realms combined. Thanks in part to this lasting balance it has, for many years, been known as one of only a handful of leading US realms for World PvP action.

RP-PvP servers were opened at subscribers’ request. Prior to the opening of this type, players had to choose between Role-play PvE servers or straight PvP servers, often splitting time between realm types to satisfy both areas of interest. The Emerald Dream moniker is a reference to the idyllic natural paradise and alternate reality as envisioned and created by the dragon Ysera and thus has strong druidic connotations.

The players
Perhaps due to the original limited release of the realm type, the Emerald Dream server has attracted, and continues to attract, players from well outside its local time zone (or the United States for that matter). Due to its widespread success with RP, PvP rankings, PvE progression, and World PvP events, the realm tends to attract a special type of player who might be active in three or four of these aspects of the game. Many other realms specialize in only one or two of these.

The denizens of the server are referred to as “Emerald Dreamers”, “Dreamers”, or simply and more commonly “EDers”.

Role-Playing Community & The Gazette
Emerald Dream has a very diverse role-playing community. Roughly half of the role-players are a part of the RP guilds. The other half are either unguilded or members of non-RP guilds. It may be discouraging for new players looking to fall into a role-playing environment on Emerald Dream. There are very few, if any, "hotspots" that people can expect to always find role-playing happening, but there is much more spontaneous role-play opportunities. On occasion, one of the several role-play guilds will publicly announce and hold an event for all to join, but much more often a player will simple stumble onto a meeting out in the world.

The Emerald Dream role-playing community has seen many ups and downs over the years but continues to be a solid part of the server. Of course there are varying degrees of involvement amongst the community; some players role-play all the time, while others will rarely partake and different styles of role-playing exist here as well. The most essential trait a new player can have is that of an open mind.

The Emerald Dream Gazette was created to help foster the already existing server community, with the major focus being the role-playing community. The Gazette offers more organization than the official Realm Forums and allows for stories, biographies and events to get more attention. Guilds can also enjoy a better system of listing themselves among the many guilds on Emerald Dream. The most important goal is to offer a more mature and focused place for discussion.

Realm forum
Supplemental to in-game activity, the Emerald Dream Realm Forum also enjoys lively participation and is often viewed as an extension of the game if not a game unto itself.

Due to a mix of interests, creativity, and strong personalities, the forum is a volatile brew of smack talk, game mechanic discussion, mindless banter, playing tips, laments, citations of good play, jibes, song and movie quotes, jingoism, bon mots, insults, role play and creative writing.

Naturally, with a server emphasis on role play, the more popular posts tend to be of the role playing and creative writing ilk. Styles and subject matter range considerably from complete game inspired fantasy fiction, to role play re-tellings of in-game events, to satiric interpretations of real life expressed in game terms.

IRC Chat Channel

 * Server: irc.quakenet.org
 * Channel: #ed

Guilds
Guilds on Emerald Dream are as diverse as it characters, with different levels of interest in Role-play, PvE and PvP.

For PvE progression, please refer to the realm's page on WowProgress.

PvP
For a listing of the top PvP players on ED, please refer to the realm's player rankings on the official World of Warcraft site.