Classic World of Warcraft Discussion [Megathread]

[Darkeon]

You are a smart guy. I assume you can show us that this would be cheap. Please do, that's all people want to see, actual facts backed up. So please, show us how its "cheap"

Blizzard keeps several nearly-dead servers and even avoided closing these down by coming up with "cross-realm technology" - to avoid the bad PR that shutting down servers brings - so it's not that preposterous to assume that it's not that expensive (by Activision-Blizzard standards, that is) to have, keep and maintain these servers.

So I do indeed feel that having two legacy servers, per region, wouldn't be the end of Blizzard.

Do note, that I'm not saying that this would be an awesome investment for Blizzard, by any stretch. As we got no way of knowing exactly how many would actually adhere. Merely stating on the fact that I do think Blizzard would be able to pull it off.

[MarizzaDraenor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2RGL8j4yQ8

A new tribute vid of Nost

[Deleted]

Blizzard keeps several nearly-dead servers and even avoided closing these down by coming up with "cross-realm technology" - to avoid the bad PR that shutting down servers brings - so it's not that preposterous to assume that it's not that expensive (by Activision-Blizzard standards, that is) to have, keep and maintain these servers.

So I do indeed feel that having two legacy servers, per region, wouldn't be the end of Blizzard.

Do note, that I'm not saying that this would be an awesome investment for Blizzard, by any stretch. As we got no way of knowing exactly how many would actually adhere. Merely stating on the fact that I do think Blizzard would be able to pull it off.

two per server would not be enough. you'd need atleast 4 servers.
PVE
PVP
RP
RPPVP

[Ghier]

According to blizzard they don't anymore. The "code" for that time is unretrievable and gone.

That is why I was careful not to say scripts or code. The way everything worked is still known, or at least available to be researched.

[urasim]

Except not everyone want to play on pservers. Some just move on. There's a plethora of reasons. So if anything current sub number<12mill peak. Oh wait all of a sudden it does hold water. The game ain't good from that perspective.
See how changing the numbers makes me look good? Just like you did
But keep telling yourself the game is better (again some parts are, but some aren't, and it's an opinion not fact, so don't pretend what you said is fact either).

Less than 12 million looks better than what he said. You're not very good at this. Also, everything goes in a decline after some time. This doesn't magically exclude games.

Think of it this way. There was 7 million people at the end of classic, yet classic servers, that are FREE, can't even get close to those numbers.

[Kyanion]

A new tribute vid of Nost

Oh boy a tribute! Thanks Nost for hosting an illegal server so I could play WoW for free! You guys were awesome! *eyeroll*

[Djriff]

That is why I was careful not to say scripts or code. The way everything worked is still known, or at least available to be researched.

True. A lot of PS' have to recreate a lot of it though.

[Jester Joe]

According to blizzard they don't anymore. The "code" for that time is unretrievable and gone.

Which I still don't understand how some random people can managed to get it working fine then with some hiccups possibly, yet Blizzard says no.

[urasim]

I'd happily take this offer. Just adding the possibility to play on strictly Vanilla realms, with the game exactly as it was at the time ? Sign me up.

And just so you know, that's actually what these PS strived for.

Except they were planning on expanding to TBC. Guess they wouldn't be "strictly Vanilla".

[risingforce]

the thing is, Nostalrius offers what Blizzard doesn't

it doesn't outright compete with them

people who play there are sick of the current WoW and wouldn't play it anyway

it's just sad they feel the need to punish a purely non-profit project for providing thousands of players the joy they can no longer find in Blizzard's version of World of Warcraft

well within their rights of course though

The 'joy' found is thus: Nostalrius offers what Blizzard doesn't: Blizzard's IP for free.

Nostalrius users - People playing on a server that knowingly breaks copyright law, should have expected this day and likewise should have been prepared for it; not cry about it nor martyr themselves. It's for everyone's benefit that operations like this are shut down.

On competition - Really, I think the only 'competition' presented is via price: e.g. Blizzard's subscription vs. playing something for free. Literally, a lot of players would love to relive nostalgia for free than pay for a game where you'll likely feel compelled to play more (because you're paying) -the pay model introduces that feel of obligation, whereas the free model can be visited at leisure. And this is competition to the Blizzard model and revenue and does hurt the game as a result. I'm not saying the free model vs. paid is that simple nor is there a clear winner, but it is competion to what wow offers.

On potential WoW customers - You say people wouldn't play WoW anyway. Then that should be the end of it.

At the end of the day, as you suggest, Blizzard protected their IP and that's their right and obligation to ensure the brand and IP's success.

We all want WoW to be the best it can be and as the player base - we should support the efforts Blizzard need to take to ensure WoW's success and try to respect that protecting IP is part of that.

[Djriff]

Which I still don't understand how some random people can managed to get it working fine then with some hiccups possibly, yet Blizzard says no.

From my understanding, they tweak the current games code. You can go on websites and download the old patches, so the code is still "there" just not on blizzards end.

[Deleted]

According to blizzard they don't anymore. The "code" for that time is unretrievable and gone.

they could easily have that old code back through for example the largest vanilla private server ever to exist, which was shut down yesterday...

[ls-]

Which I still don't understand how some random people can managed to get it working fine then with some hiccups possibly, yet Blizzard says no.

Absolutely different implementation, hence it's called emulator.

[Darkeon]

two per server would not be enough. you'd need atleast 4 servers.
PVE
PVP
RP
RPPVP

Oh please, no one ever advocates for the Roleplayers - now suddenly everyone is worried about them. As a roleplayer myself, Blizzard has neglected Roleplaying to the point of it being mostly Guild-Based and with little to no interactions to the outside world. I find myself, having playing in a RP-PvP realm most of my time on WoW, to be severely outnumbered by people who have no interest in RP - and by those who actively, publicly mock it. And no one, nor Blizzard, does anything about it.

Safe to assume that, for an experimental phase of implementation of said Legacy Servers, merely a PvP and a PvE (as both servers types massively clash in terms of different in playstyle) would be more than enough to sustain the population.

[urasim]

That is why I was careful not to say scripts or code. The way everything worked is still known, or at least available to be researched.

Yeah, and they should do it for free, right?

[Froggy]

According to blizzard they don't anymore. The "code" for that time is unretrievable and gone.

The Nostalrius team has offered to work with Blizz on this... for free.

[Darkeon]

You just answered the question.

Yeah, ignore the rest and cherry-pick that field like a good boy!
Have a good day, sir!

[Jester Joe]

From my understanding, they tweak the current games code. You can go on websites and download the old patches, so the code is still "there" just not on blizzards end.

That's what I mean though, it doesn't seem like it's honestly that hard for Blizzard to get the code again.

Unless they don't want to resort to that because people will laugh if they found out Blizzard got their code back from private servers.

[Deleted]

he has a valid point, how much content is there to do in vanilla? now how much of that content people have played through already? vanilla realm simply doesnt look like it could prosper long-term, considering there would be zero patces ever, most people interested in vanilla would finish the content in a couple of months and considering vanilla had very little replayability, those people would just... leave. it simply wouldnt be worth it for blizzard.

Very few people cleared Nax 40. Blizzard have the internal stats on this. We have no idea how many more people would have cleared Nax 40 if it had lasted longer.

The point is there was always content to clear, if you were willing. Vanilla had a great sense of progression and the game was built to last.

So the notion that most people would quickly run out of content is simply not true.

People here need to differentiate true demand from a sense of entitlement. We need to see Blizzard as a business first and foremost who are governed by self-interest.

It's very easy to become passionate about this because legacy servers won't even become abandonware if Blizzard's stance doesn't change, which would be tragic IMO.

Having said that, Shenmue 3 was partially crowd funded. Very few people thought that would ever happen because Shenmue only had a small cult following. I'm sure vanilla WoW would have a much much larger following than that.

[Kyanion]

You know what make me laugh? If Blizzard DID do a retro server. However thy pick WotLK or TBC and never do Vanilla. I wonder if people's heads would explode. I mean it can be argued that those two expansions were far more popular/remembered more fondly.