Classic World of Warcraft Discussion [Megathread]

[anon5123]

Because they sell Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 at the same cost.

And why can't they continue selling Vanilla or TBC or WOTLK at the same cost as well?

It does seem really strange to me that Blizzard has no problems keeping D2 online when D3 has been out for years, but they're adamantly refusing to keep old WoW expansions online.

"b-but d2 and d3 are different games! WoW is still the same game, just with expansions and patches!"

Technically, yes. In reality, no. Each expansion feels and plays differently than all the others, in various ways. In terms of content, class balance, abilities and mechanics, etc...Vanilla is different from TBC is different from WOTLK is different from Cata, etc. etc. Hence why there are different pservers running different expansions. Because the expansions are vastly different from each other.

[A dot Ham]

What does the court has to do with it now?

All I'm saying is Nostalrius would have been able to pay their costs and Blizzard should make legacy servers.
Why are you talking about court now?

Seriously man are you daft?

Why don't you keep up with the arguments that have been going on all day. Bye. Ignoring you.

[AeneasBK]

It does seem really strange to me that Blizzard has no problems keeping D2 online when D3 has been out for years, but they're adamantly refusing to keep old WoW expansions online.

Don't even have to go that far. "Why do they bother patching d3 every few months for new seasons if it doesn't have a sub?" The dev time since Reaper of Souls came out must have cost tens if not hundreds of millions...

[Deleted]

I am afraid... afraid that http://i.imgur.com/04GlN7y.png is true.
What if Blizzard actually did not issue the cease and desist? should nost go up again if that should be the case? with all that publicity now?
I mean I kind of hope it is not that clusterfuck - but man... what if blizz actually condoned that server, without being open about it, because they of course can not without making it a huge deal.

Ha, thats what I said after the first few days without the c&d letter showing up anywhere....

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And why can't they continue selling Vanilla or TBC or WOTLK at the same cost as well?
"b-but d2 and d3 are different games! WoW is still the same game, just with expansions and patches!"
Technically, yes. In reality, no.

Because wc3 and d2 are STATIC game they dont change. wow is an evolving world (like the one you live in when you get out of bed) that changes everyday, so does wow. learn to deal with it.

[anon5123]

Because wc3 and d2 are STATIC game they dont change.

Except D2 has been getting patches in recent years. It is changing, even 15 years after its release.

wow is an evolving world

Yes, and we, as the humans who programmed that evolving world, have the power to host a separate server where the world stopped evolving at a certain point.

[Marakesh]

Lol, there are already lists of private servers. I suggest you start there. Blizz will probably knight you for your efforts.


Both sides are guilty of this.



I think that, for the most part, the private server crowd knows very well that it is illegal.

I agree, the private server community has really shown a shitty side these past couple weeks... but so has the retail community.

Just click on his name and recent forum posts. Scanning through them - they're almost all in this thread and within the last week and they're almost all vitriolic and angry. Do people really believe it's everyone else that's the mean ones?

[Deleted]

Seriously man are you daft?

Why don't you keep up with the arguments that have been going on all day. Bye. Ignoring you.

No problem. You cleary have no idea what I was talking about or what my arguments actually were about.

[Tharkkun]

I agree with the rest of your points except this one. MoP was not fine, if Blizzard did a vote before MoP asking what style customers wanted in the expansion I doubt an Asian themed panda expansion would of been anywhere near the top.

Once people got over themselves in disagreement of the theme, MOP was an amazing expansion. They put the content and focus in all the correct places. They could've copy/pasted the entire expansion with a new theme and been just as successful in WOD. But instead they changed everything.

[Deleted]

So does anyone think blizzard are CONSIDERING legacy servers? Do some of you think that they are just ignoring it?

[Goondicker]

So does anyone think blizzard are CONSIDERING legacy servers? Do some of you think that they are just ignoring it?

I do think they are considering it. Whether or not they'll implement them, I don't know. It's become a big enough issue it would be impossible to completely ignore.

[Marakesh]

I am afraid... afraid that http://i.imgur.com/04GlN7y.png is true.
What if Blizzard actually did not issue the cease and desist? should nost go up again if that should be the case? with all that publicity now?

I mean I kind of hope it is not that clusterfuck - but man... what if blizz actually condoned that server, without being open about it, because they of course can not without making it a huge deal.

Seems too good to be true, wishful thinking. Wouldn't be the most shocking thing to ever happen, lots of hacker tricks worse than that. Everyone is happy in the end this way. Legacy players get their server back, haters got something more to hate about.

[Ausr]

I do think they are considering it. Whether or not they'll implement them, I don't know. It's become a big enough issue it would be impossible to completely ignore.

They've been steadfast with the answer no for like 10 years. Highly doubt they're changing because they took down a private server

[anyaka21]

If you want what WoW has to offer you should have to pay the money to Blizzard, not achieve it through backdoor services. Don't want to miss out? Don't unsub then. Don't get to have your cake & eat it too.

my problem is that this, if not mistaken (I haven't played in years), is not something that Blizzard was offering or had in the plans to offer.

Maybe Blizzard could have just taken it over, charged something like $5 a month or something like that to help cover the upkeep cost, etc... of the server, and it's all good. But shutting it down is just bad form.

Granted, just my opinion, but there it is.

[Zanno]

I do think they are considering it. Whether or not they'll implement them, I don't know. It's become a big enough issue it would be impossible to completely ignore.

It's potential income. I don't think Blizzard are ignoring that. I do think, however, that the costs associated with opening legacy servers would be too great for it to be worth it at this point. I can't say for sure, of course. All comments one way or the other in this thread are pure speculation. Even if Blizzard has said "No. No way. No way in hell.", they've said that before about certain things, and they've done complete 180's.

[Marakesh]

So here's an example of how fucked up copyright law can be.

In the computer industry there is conflict between the companies who make computer systems (generally the big server variety) and 3rd-party maintenance companies who would like to sell you a service contract to maintain and repair that hardware for less money than the manufacturer wants to charge for the same services.

Each time you power-up a computer, it copies (you can see where this is going) the operating system from disk into memory. It turns out that the server manufacturers were able to successfully claim that this operation is "making a copy" under copyright law, and thus the manufacturer had the right to control each and every "copy" that was made. The manufacturer could decide whether to permit or deny each operation of their software, so they could allow the customer to turn on the computer, but not a 3rd-party maintenance engineer.

Under this same logic, any device that includes software, and any software covered by copyright, can be absolutely controlled by the owner of the copyright based on this crazy idea that simply executing the software involves a making a new copy under copyright law.

Eventually a law was passed with a specific exclusion that stated 3rd-party maintenance engineers must be permitted to operate the equipment they're maintaining, but there may still be cases where simple copyright law allows a software creator to similarly control the behavior of those using the software.

As fun as Movies and TV programs about law are to watch, and how cool the law seems when you start to study it, the fact is that it's a lot messier in reality, and many times what you think is an open-and-shut case turns out to be much more complex and often nobody can predict what the outcome will be. So even if everyone in this thread knew all the applicable law perfectly, these debates would still be close to pointless. Additionally, the actual outcome of a case may be overshadowed by the costs in both time and money to the participants. If you can hold the threat of a $30,000,000.00 damage verdict over someone's head, along with the more immediate and similarly destructive legal costs for defending yourself, then it often doesn't matter much how "in the right" you are when the outcome can't be predicted with any confidence.

This sounds more for real than all the rest of the legal discussion going on here combined. It's also why people don't view laws as moral, more and more. Do Tolkien's grandkids, or is it great grandkids now, really need even more royalties? Or the game of buying an old corporation and using its patents to shake down other companies with questionable law suits.

[Ielenia]

Except D2 has been getting patches in recent years. It is changing, even 15 years after its release.

Diablo 2 is static. The updates they got recently have been purely to adapt the game to the newer OS and internet functionalities. The game world itself remains unchanged.

Yes, and we, as the humans who programmed that evolving world, have the power to host a separate server where the world stopped evolving at a certain point.

We also have the power to destroy all mankind in a matter of days. Doesn't mean we should.

[AeneasBK]

Prompt song please ^^

I don't have shazam *(

Is it an advert for something? Kept watching to see if there was a point to it, then it ended. Odd video.

[wych]

I challenge you, as well as Blizzard, to shut down our WoW Vanilla private servers now based in the Russian Federation. I am currently playing in one such WoW Vanilla server based in the Russian Federation alongwith many of the former Nostalrius players.

Nostalrius will be up again soon in the next weeks, including all of our toons and the old database but hosted in the Russian Federation.

I challenge you, as well as Blizzard, to shut us down, if you can.

The Russians will wipe their ass with Blizzard's "formal letters". Russian Vanilla WoW Private server "Valkyrie" says "Privet" (that's "hello" in Russian).

That's brilliant if true, hope they get their server and characters. Although would the lag be bad? I haven't played private servers in ages, but this whole situation makes me want to play one of it comes back. They were great fun, with a much better community than the real game

[Gaman]

I do think they are considering it. Whether or not they'll implement them, I don't know. It's become a big enough issue it would be impossible to completely ignore.

Since they have come up with a "No", they have considered it, and will probably continue to do so, and the answer will continue to be "No". Atleast for as long as they are working on new WoW expansions.

The only time I see Blizzard creating legacy servers is when WoW is done, and the last expansion for WoW is consumed by the playerbase.

Making legacy servers while the game is still "ongoing" is simply a bad buisness choice, thats like having Blizzard admit that, "yeah, the new expansions we made sucked, and apparently people would rather play the old ones". Not good marketing when still trying to sell new expansions.

But yeah, when WoW is done, id go for a maybe on the part of legacy servers. Its not like Blizz never have gone from a "no" to a "yes". (Faction restriction on PvP servers beeing one example)

[Goondicker]

They've been steadfast with the answer no for like 10 years. Highly doubt they're changing because they took down a private server

Yes, but for most of those 10 years they had a very healthy subscriber pool.

Now? Not so much. If they don't want to reconsider their "no" on private servers, they might want to reconsider the direction of retail.

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The only time I see Blizzard creating legacy servers is when WoW is done, and the last expansion for WoW is consumed by the playerbase.

I said this from about 2008 to 2014, but I'm not as certain, now. I really didn't think they'd tank WoD this hard.