Offical response from blizzard on legacy servers.

[Deleted]

We wanted to let you know that we’ve been closely following the Nostalrius discussion and we appreciate your constructive thoughts and suggestions.

Our silence on this subject definitely doesn’t reflect our level of engagement and passion around this topic. We hear you. Many of us across Blizzard and the WoW Dev team have been passionate players ever since classic WoW. In fact, I personally work at Blizzard because of my love for classic WoW.

We have been discussing classic servers for years - it’s a topic every BlizzCon - and especially over the past few weeks. From active internal team discussions to after-hours meetings with leadership, this subject has been highly debated. Some of our current thoughts:

Why not just let Nostalrius continue the way it was? The honest answer is, failure to protect against intellectual property infringement would damage Blizzard’s rights. This applies to anything that uses WoW’s IP, including unofficial servers. And while we’ve looked into the possibility – there is not a clear legal path to protect Blizzard’s IP and grant an operating license to a pirate server.

We explored options for developing classic servers and none could be executed without great difficulty. If we could push a button and all of this would be created, we would. However, there are tremendous operational challenges to integrating classic servers, not to mention the ongoing support of multiple live versions for every aspect of WoW.

So what can we do to capture that nostalgia of when WoW first launched? Over the years we have talked about a “pristine realm”. In essence that would turn off all levelling acceleration including character transfers, heirloom gear, character boosts, Recruit-A-Friend bonuses, WoW Token, and access to cross realm zones, as well as group finder. We aren't sure whether this version of a clean slate is something that would appeal to the community and it’s still an open topic of discussion.

One other note - we’ve recently been in contact with some of the folks who operated Nostalrius. They obviously care deeply about the game, and we look forward to more conversations with them in the coming weeks.

You, the Blizzard community, are the most dedicated, passionate players out there. We thank you for your constructive thoughts and suggestions. We are listening.

J. Allen Brack

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...84206#new-post

It's ironic then, that the very same person that said: You think you do, but you Don't. is now posting a topic, in the official Forums about vanilla realms?

Listen to me, J. Allen Brack

Please do not confuse our dissatisfaction with how retail currently is with our love for classic WoW. This is important. We all want the retail version of the game to be great and enjoyable, the best it can be. If you want to take a look at the philosophy Blizzard built their games around 2005 and try to improve the retail version, then that is great.

But please, do not think that our love for classic WoW is a temporary thing because we currently dislike the retail version. The two are over ten years apart. They are completely different games. We want to play classic WoW, that is our only request. You've said that you would not provide it for us, so out of love for the game and the World of Warcraft community, some people have decided over the years to provide this game for us despite the hardships that come along with it.

There have been classic servers since forever, it's something that provides content almost indefinitely. This is mostly because classic servers were all about the community and the player driven content. If you release classic progression servers, there will definitely be content for years. Just have a talk with the devs at Nostalrius. The server had been up for over a year and we had not even started AQ war preparation. And the great thing about classic WoW is the fact that, even if you do complete all content - there is still a whole lot of things to do, since it's an open world with thousands of people in it.

The demand for these servers are unbelievable and we are all waiting to sell our houses and livers so that we can finally play on them.

The Vanilla communtiy has poked a lot of fun at Blizzard over the years, since we have felt that we've been ignored since Blizzard started to abandon some of the philosophies that we believe made the game truly great. We all want Blizzard to do great and we all want to feel welcome. Now, since we have been silenced in the past many WoW players have no idea how large the vanilla community actually is and I think it's fair to say that Blizzard have forgotten too.

Many people have been scared to 'split the community' by adding legacy servers, but the reality of the situation is this: we've been split ever since you abandoned the 2005 philosophies. But we've managed to do OK on our own, though many of us still subscribed to the retail game. Now, with Nostalrius shut down we just feel stepped on, thus the uproar lately.

We are not trying to steal your profits. We are your fans too. We have been waiting for years to be able to play legacy servers provided by Blizzard.

What we want is simple: Vanilla progressions servers, as they were back then. We don't want any modifications or 'improvements'. The only changes that are acceptable are stability and server capacity. Yes, some people might ask for X and Y to be changed - but that's nothing new. We had those few people on Nostalrius too. It's not difficult to say no and that this is will be servers as they were back then and nothing more.

We just want to go home, we just want Vanilla.

[Video Games]

Yeah. Such a great challenge to do vanilla servers when fucking people in their basements can do it for free. It's not like they have a few billion in cash reserves or anything.

[Redroniksre]

Good, they responded, now let the pitchforks die and instead turn the discussion onto what about vanilla made it different. Legacy servers will not happen and demanding it and pretending you know better than Blizzard will get you nowhere.

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Yeah. Such a great challenge to do vanilla servers when fucking people in their basements can do it for free. It's not like they have a few billion in cash reserves or anything.

And here is why armchair coders will never let the topic die apparently.

[Deleted]

And here is why armchair coders will never let the topic die apparently.

Of course, because it proves conclusively that Blizzard's "it's too difficult technically" argument is complete nonsense. As is their "we must protect our IP" argument. They seem to have incompetent technical and legal staff, or they just spew excuses.

[Yunru]

Well this means some1 else will make a new private vanila server after reading this.

Pristine realm sound pretty much vanila wow + all updates (yeh even the lfr). And this is where problem lies.

[Amerissis]

Oh, interesting. I like the idea of a pristine server. I'd never play on one personally, but I think it would please a lot of people that want LFG, leveling perks, heirlooms etc. to be removed. It would create a real server community again and people seem to miss that, at least some of them. I hope they will implement this, it might even lead the way to more (and different) specialized servers. Maybe one without LFR and/or without flying, so people who want that can play like that and leave us LFR-er and/or flyers alone

[Jtbrig7390]

Yeah. Such a great challenge to do vanilla servers when fucking people in their basements can do it for free. It's not like they have a few billion in cash reserves or anything.

I love it.

Blizzard gives people a reason on why they won't do it and people like you still bitch and moan. Please do tell how the classic server setup would work under the current battle.net setup

Do you expect people to run two clients or blizzard to update two different clients? That isn't the only issue they would face ether. They finally speak up and say why they shut the server down. But there reason isn't good enough for you is it.

You are not a coder, you don't know how blizzards system works. So to sit there and think its a flip of a switch is foolish. Anyone with even a small amount of knowledge on coding knows why this would be a pain in the ass for blizzard.

To add just because X amount played a free private server does not mean the same amount or more would pay for a official one. Cost does matter believe it or not.

[Video Games]

Good, they responded, now let the pitchforks die and instead turn the discussion onto what about vanilla made it different. Legacy servers will not happen and demanding it and pretending you know better than Blizzard will get you nowhere.

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And here is why armchair coders will never let the topic die apparently.

Maybe because their bullshit excuse doesn't fly and people aren't retarded enough to believe them. I don't get why people can't admit that wow isn't good anymore and vanilla/bc were better. inb4 LE ROZE TINTED GOOGLE argument because people can't explain why wow is better today besides MUH SPEC

I love it.

Blizzard gives people a reason on why they won't do it and people like you still bitch and moan. Please do tell how the classic server setup would work under the current battle.net setup

Do you expect people to run two clients or blizzard to update two different clients? That isn't the only issue they would face ether. They finally speak up and say why they shut the server down. But there reason isn't good enough for you is it.

Guess what people did when they played retail and nos. They had 2 clients and vanilla was only 5 gigs which is nothing now. But please, keep telling me why a billiion dollar company can't give people more options.

[Zantos]

This isn't the first, and probably wont be the last response on this subject from them. Its just more of the same old that they always say. They can't make it happen because of technological hurdles and the man power that would need to be dedicated to maintaining multiple versions of the game. Nothing we didn't already know.

That said, their only possible idea isn't all that grand. A server with no crz, no leveling help, no group finder and no token wouldn't really re-capture the feeling one bit. Its the same old wow as now, except when people start to leave that server, it would feel empty.

The things that make the experiences at those times great cannot be recreated. Its the people, the memories, the events. Every little detail of seeing a brand new world for the first time, and experiencing it with others cannot be recreated. They can Never recreate that time or feeling. It's just not feasible. The only chance they have would be an Entirely new game since That could recreate the feeling of experiencing a brand new world with others who are just as clueless as you. Where everything is a discovery. A game where you cannot just go online and see a guide pertaining to every detail of the game to walk you step by step to completion of every quest and achievement.

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Good, they responded, now let the pitchforks die and instead turn the discussion onto what about vanilla made it different. Legacy servers will not happen and demanding it and pretending you know better than Blizzard will get you nowhere..

They responded with the same response as always. This thread wont go anywhere really. Its nothing new information wise.

[Perr]

Good, they responded, now let the pitchforks die and instead turn the discussion onto what about vanilla made it different. Legacy servers will not happen and demanding it and pretending you know better than Blizzard will get you nowhere.

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And here is why armchair coders will never let the topic die apparently.

I've read the blue post a few times and nowhere in there do they say legacy servers won't happen. Compared with the "wall of no", this is a huge change in attitude from Blizzard.

[Redroniksre]

Of course, because it proves conclusively that Blizzard's "it's too difficult technically" argument is complete nonsense. As is their "we must protect our IP" argument. They seem to have incompetent technical and legal staff, or they just spew excuses.

It proves nothing, or maybe you control the cameras at Blizzard so you can tell us definitively what work is needed? What next? You think an emulated server is the same as one they would make? And the IP laws are a perfectly valid excuse unless you don't understand how aggressive you have to be with copyright law in the U.S.

[Zantos]

Of course, because it proves conclusively that Blizzard's "it's too difficult technically" argument is complete nonsense. As is their "we must protect our IP" argument. They seem to have incompetent technical and legal staff, or they just spew excuses.

They have a right to protect their IP. Regardless of what you think. A pirate server does Not have the funds nor capabilities to adequately protect against cyber attacks aimed at stealing the data of the game.

[Jtbrig7390]

Guess what people did when they played retail and nos. They had 2 clients and vanilla was only 5 gigs which is nothing now. But please, keep telling me why a billiion dollar company can't give people more options.

How many of those people gave them $15 a month......

[MoanaLisa]

You think an emulated server is the same as one they would make?

Apparently a lot of people do. They are wrong of course. But they still do. It already appears as if people would rather have nothing at all. Perfect is the enemy of better.

[Zantos]

Well this means some1 else will make a new private vanila server after reading this.

Pristine realm sound pretty much vanila wow + all updates (yeh even the lfr). And this is where problem lies.

They aren't making them. It was an idea discussed, and no, the dungeon finder wouldn't be a part of it.

[Super Kami Dende]

Of course, because it proves conclusively that Blizzard's "it's too difficult technically" argument is complete nonsense. As is their "we must protect our IP" argument. They seem to have incompetent technical and legal staff, or they just spew excuses.

No, but this statement does prove that you have zero understanding of how things are made.

There is a very big difference between Nostralius just grabbing the Vanilla game in its old "as was" state and writing some code, and Blizzard completely overhauling it themselves to work on their new server infrastructure and code.

[Deleted]

Not good news, it doesnt sound like they are going to do it, but instead try a different kind of realm,a pristine realm that i do not like the sound of one bit.

What do you mean not good news? Its the best possible news: they have never stated this directly they want to do it.

They used to say "We don't want to do it because our vision for the game is to more forward, not live in the past + it's a lot of work/legal issues". Now they say "We wan't to do it but it's a lot of work/legal issues".

And they said they are willing to license legacy realms out to third parties, removing the "a lot of work" component. ("a lot of work" and "it cost a lot of money" are synonymous btw)

So basically if a legal workaround can be found, legacy realms are good to go. We're down from 3 obstacles to 1.

[Ergunk]

Blizz could had cared less and not even give an answer.
At least they are looking into some sort of other alternative.

WoW community is becoming more toxic.

[Deleted]

It proves nothing, or maybe you control the cameras at Blizzard so you can tell us definitively what work is needed?

It's existence proof, so it's conclusive.

And the IP laws are a perfectly valid excuse unless you don't understand how aggressive you have to be with copyright law in the U.S.

You don't understand the difference between copyright and trademark. Trademark you have to protect or you lose it.

[Zantos]

I love it.

Blizzard gives people a reason on why they won't do it and people like you still bitch and moan. Please do tell how the classic server setup would work under the current battle.net setup

Do you expect people to run two clients or blizzard to update two different clients? That isn't the only issue they would face ether. They finally speak up and say why they shut the server down. But there reason isn't good enough for you is it.

You are not a coder, you don't know how blizzards system works. So to sit there and think its a flip of a switch is foolish. Anyone with even a small amount of knowledge on coding knows why this would be a pain in the ass for blizzard.

To add just because X amount played a free private server does not mean the same amount or more would pay for a official one. Cost does matter believe it or not.

It wasn't enough for them the first billion times they said this, it wont be this time. This discussion has happened a Ton. I really don't see what more there is to discuss even. They literally have said these reasons before, and people still complained saying that "Basement dwellers could do it, so could blizzard!!!"