Official Reply to Vanilla Servers and Nostalrius

[VitesseEOD]

it's not the same game.

Its the same Product, just a different Revision. Its not going to become abandonware.

[Etselion]

Do it, Blizz. Open a couple "pristine" servers as a test! What have you got to lose? I would love to see the feedback because it could be the answer to getting WoW back on track without losing anything. Let the community and top players play a bigger role in shaping these servers! You might strike gold again...

Balance the game differently on these servers, take the risks you're not willing to take right now and see how it pans out. Bring the flavor back, bring our abilities back, bring our professions back to what they once were, let us explore and socialize and brave difficult challenges...

Nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Yeah, this early feedback doesn't seem very promising...

https://www.strawpoll.me/10052507/r

[Kolvarg]

Nostalgia and rose tinted specs seem to be helluva common.

How can this still be thrown around as an argument after Nostalrius becoming so public and seeing the ammount of people that were actually playing it actively (instead of just "daydreaming" about playing it)?

Yes there has been many substantial improvements to the game, but there has also been a great great shift in design philosophy and direction. The more "objectively-analysable" parts of the game have improved greatly, but the experience it offers is vastly different. For instance there's no denying the graphics are way better now. But you can't say the game looks better than it used to because the aesthetics also changed, and some people prefered how it looked before despite being technologically inferior.

The same goes for many gameplay, accessibility and reward features and design. You simply can't say that current leveling is better than Vanilla leveling, or current endgame is better than Vanilla endgame, because even if you believe so, that's just your opinion, based on your taste.

At this point they could practically be independent separate games, with Vanilla being an oldschool MMORPG, with big emphasis on the RPG part, and intended to be played frequently and for relatively long periods of time; and current WoW being a Multiplayer Action RPG, with emphasis on the diablo-ish fast action plenty loot gameplay, intended for relatively short and possibly infrequent periods of time.

One isn't better than the other, they're just different, and some people like one better, others like the other one. The difference being that the first one is much more fitting of a subscription model than the latter, which seems to be more fitting of a B2P model like Diablo, especial with the ammount and frequency of patches we've been getting.

[Drpizka]

Yeah, this early feedback doesn't seem very promising...

https://www.strawpoll.me/10052507/r

mmo-champion poll justifies him though

[ombus]

Because time commitment should get rewarded, getting an epic item when you ding max level isn't a challenge at all. If you spend time for it, it is a challenge

Time is not = challenge.. if that was it then everyone would have loved the dailies of mop.. challenge is when something is hard.. you die a lot or close to be dead. You have to think about the things that kills you and change the strategy to win.. thats challenge for me.

[DarkAmbient]

I would play on a pristine realm IF:

No previous achievements are carried over
Everyone starts with nothing

[Deleted]

maybe because it's not vanilla?

Oh im sorry did every expansion but hurt you ? like complaining from pandas to cata and bla bla ... Yes game is in terible state but pristine server solves most of the stuff thats bad. I played vanilla and from raiding prospective i dont wanna go back, why should i gather all resistance gear, farm shit tons of mats for buffs,have spells on 6 ranks geting oom from frostbolts,boss mechanics broken or non working properly,boss designs oversimplified,... Yes some peops like vanilla, but many of em are just fallowing flow with nost and stuff,becouse they didnt actualy play vanilla to begin with.

[Viking]

You all nost fans dont wanna play on pristine server. I wonder why ... Maybe becouse you wont be able to freeload anymore.

yeah because everyone who played on Nost was a freeloader. stfu. I've had an active WoW account since 2004 and I played there so please, feel free make a bigger fool of yourself.

Pristine servers sound awful. It's just the current garbage expack minus all the quality of life stuff that makes it bearable.

[Drpizka]

time is not = challenge.. if that was it then everyone would have loved the dailies of mop.. challenge is when something is hard.. you die a lot or close to be death.. you have to think about the think that kills you and change to win.. thats challenge for me.

For cry-babies, time = challenge. It will teach them that they have to work to get their rewards.

As far as difficulty, and die a lot etc, count me in for that. I like that kind of stuff.

It will also teach people to make groups and socialize if they want to make it through.

[Aeula]

A pristine realm would be utterly pointless. Even if you wanted the game to be 'hard' you'd still blast through the content on a pristine realm with ease.

[Etselion]

mmo-champion poll justifies him though

Which MMO-C pool? The one that crazy Havok guy made

[Granyala]

Would you play on a pristine realm?

Been playing on one since 2007, since I never gave a hoot about Heirloom gear, Character boosts RAF bonuses and only use the token for gametime.

[barackohmama]

Let's not kid ourselves. Vanilla has little to do with it. The predominant reason those people play in there is because it's free.

Far from true. I play both vanilla and live and most in my vanilla guild would pay if blizzard offered such a service.

[Alexeht]

"pristine realm" is not what people want ... they want old game ...

[Deleted]

But Vanilla wasnt more challenging it was just MORE time consuming, how is spending more time on something more of a challenge?

It's not about challenging in absolute terms, but subjective terms. When you spend the time on achieving something ultimately it's not about the reward. It's about personal development and the feeling of accomplishment by conquering your own faults. And conquering your own faults is the most difficult thing to do in the world. To find the motivation, dedication, integrity, strength etc. to do something that takes a lot of time is very difficult. Anyone who tried to improve their physique, getting a dream job, some amount of money, realizing your travel around the world dream etc. goals knows what I'm talking about.

[Drpizka]

Which MMO-C pool? The one that crazy Havok guy made

See on the first page! 54% towards "yes" at the moment

[zenocide]

actually, you should only speak for yourself.

Because, apparently, there were many people -and still are- that played vanilla on a private server.

even more then, why would blizzard even care to be nice to "illegal" players? if they didnt pay then, they certainly wont pay now.
but my point was, sure vanilla wow was a great game, but it's an old game, with terrible mechanics. given the amount of time and energy it would require to implement a vanilla server live i cant help myself thinking that it's bound to fail in the long run. ppl start crying after 2months of same content... i cant imagine they'll last any longer in 10years old content. Sure it'll be nice to see old stuff... but will it be like playing in vanilla? no it wont. ppl will get bored soon.

i'd rather have the team concentrate on new content

[Drpizka]

"pristine realm" is not what people want ... they want old game ...

I disagree. Most want the "vanilla feeling". So the challenges and the social aspect of the game

[jasdasm]

There is only 1 way you get your shitty boring Vanilla Servers

They hire the Nostalrius Guys and let it run under Blizzards Watch

wont happen

[Jaja]

"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. "

Surely taking the Nostalrius devs as freelance workers (or volunteers) under the corporate tag of Blizzard would work.