Understanding realms and releases

[Auracrath]

Hey all,

Forgive my ignorance if this is a common question in an FAQ or thread and I missed it. I've never played on a private server and I'm confused about 2 things:

1) I read there are 2 realms: one for PVP, one for PVE. Is that correct? Or are there 2 types of realms (PVP and PVE), and multiple instances of them running as separate realms?

2) I'm trying to understand how patch progression works. It looks like we're using the last v1.x client (1.12.x) but the content itself is somewhere around 1.6 (BWL). I understand that the dev team needs time to script and test the new content for future patches, but when the content reaches end-game, does it stop? In other words: will there be servers that purposely start content back at 1.1 for players to experience the release cycle of the original game's content and the intermediary steps that were often required (e.g.: Ahn'qiraj War Effort)?

Thanks.

[chunass]

There are indeed 2 realms. The PvP realm launched at the end of february and has progressed to patch 1.6 (BWL) which is further than the PvE realm which launched very recently and should be at pre-1.4.

I haven't heard any mention of making new vanilla realms to start over, but they intend to make a separate TBC server once we've cleared naxx etc.

[Auracrath]

ah, makes sense. Thanks for the clarification!