Offical response from blizzard on legacy servers.

[Armourboy]

God I hate the WoW community. This is a non-issue, they don't want to take the risk of officially licensing pirate servers that are beyond their control (seriously, who would do that? It'd be insanity for any company and any individual.)

And they don't want to derail the direction of their game, regardless of how good or bad the future of WoW is, by focusing time and efforts on old shit for the sake of very small minority of players who are stuck in 2004 or forgot they're wearing rose tinted glasses.

I'm guessing you will never understand that it isn't being stuck anywhere, or about rose colored glasses. It was a completely different design philosophy, it doesn't even feel like playing the same game. It isn't about either of those things, it's that some people just prefer the older style of MMO's. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Some people really like old cars, that doesn't mean they are stuck in 1967 or forget that some of those classics has some problems with them.

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Nostalrius wasn't a launch day version of Vanilla WoW. It included Naxx and AV.

Those were added in later. One the PvE server they had just released AV. The only raids there were was Ony and MC.

[jvbastel]

I'm guessing you will never understand that it isn't being stuck anywhere, or about rose colored glasses. It was a completely different design philosophy, it doesn't even feel like playing the same game. It isn't about either of those things, it's that some people just prefer the older style of MMO's. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Some people really like old cars, that doesn't mean they are stuck in 1967 or forget that some of those classics has some problems with them.

This.

I started playing on a vanilla server after the nost news broke out, and holy cow, how much the game has changed. Some things for the better, but the overall philosophy of the game is much more to my liking as it was in vanilla.

Gear that actually matters. Dungeons that actually feel like real adventures. normal mobs that can actually kill you.
You know, a challenge.

[Deleted]

Why does it always have to be about money fopr you blizzard fanboys? why cant they just make it because the community wants them, everything they do doesnt have to be about money. FFS

It does. In the end it's about money. They are a publicly listed business and they will do things for the community if it increases their profitability in the short and/or long term.

Don't delude yourself, Blizzard is not in the business of catering to the community. It's in the business of generating shareholder value above and beyond the initial investment.

[Valnoressa]

I'm guessing you will never understand that it isn't being stuck anywhere, or about rose colored glasses. It was a completely different design philosophy, it doesn't even feel like playing the same game. It isn't about either of those things, it's that some people just prefer the older style of MMO's. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Some people really like old cars, that doesn't mean they are stuck in 1967 or forget that some of those classics has some problems with them.
.

Yeah but those people aren't asking those car companies to focus their attention away from the future/present day of car making to putting their attention on a specific old car model that probably isn't as good as most people remember it, has none of the safety or systems of the new cars and only appeals to a small minority of car owners.

[Chain Chungus]

Sounds to me like they are going to contract them out to a third party if they can get them under the Blizzard umbrella (and I'm sure, to find a way to make money on it). On top of that, they want to make an official server that answers many complaints. How is this them rejecting the idea again?

[Armourboy]

Most people who like old cars don't ask companies to continue making the older models after they stop, and then scream when they won't.

Part of that is because they still exist, you can't just run out and purchase a copy of Vanilla WoW I don't care how much money you have. Plus there are companies that can reproduce the look and feel of the old classics, they are called kit cars.

Those companies do however realize there is an appeal to those classics and design their new versions around some of the old ones.

[Armourboy]

Yeah but those people aren't asking those car companies to focus their attention away from the future/present day of car making to putting their attention on a specific old car model that probably isn't as good as most people remember it, has none of the safety or systems of the new cars and only appeals to a small minority of car owners.

And no one is asking Blizzard to take their attention away from live WoW and current content. They are just asking them to work on it in some capacity. I don't think anyone expects Blizzard to just drop what they are doing and just work on Legacy servers. They hire people all the time to do specific types of development, this wouldn't be much different.

[Deleted]

Just wanted to post about the russian private server talk before people start going off on one. Russia is sign up The World Trade Organization (WTO) which covers not only trade deals but IP laws that if broken would damage russia from future investment so to say blizzard cant touch them is very silly indeed. North korea is safe though but i think they still run on dial-up so ye.......

I find it funny that the "majority" of people have been banging on about how they miss the old vanila community feel and i have to admit i do to. But now blizzard put forward an idea that will cater for that closed off server community feel that most of the people wanting legacy server wanted they are throwing it in the dirt and re positioned the goal pools with the vanila gameplay as there main reason for wanting legacy.

I for one like the idea of a “pristine realms” and will play there most likely if they come out with them. Also i see talk of it being easy but i actually tested last year how it felt to level with no looms and i can confirm it isnt easy mode as my rogue couldnt pull more than 2 mobs without dying because of lack of dps and my lower health and when my group of testers got into dungeons we where doing not even a 5th the dps of a loomed group and beside from the healer not having mana problems it felt like vanila as the only real danger in vanila dungeons was pulling to many trash packs.

[thealmightymoo]

i wish they'd let the dead horse people are flogging rest in peace.

vanilla was shit. still is. no more. PLEASE.

[Biske]

This.

I started playing on a vanilla server after the nost news broke out, and holy cow, how much the game has changed. Some things for the better, but the overall philosophy of the game is much more to my liking as it was in vanilla.

Gear that actually matters. Dungeons that actually feel like real adventures. normal mobs that can actually kill you.
You know, a challenge.

Why not just play Everquest, then? It actually meets all of those requirements. And how is the current game not a challenge compared to vanilla? You could basically afk through Molten Core. We were carrying a 70yr old lady in our MC group back in the day. Current dungeon bosses have more mechanics than most vanilla raid bosses.

[MasterHamster]

Another MUH 15 argument. It doesn't fucking matter. Do you people understand the client is on the internet and they can just download it, build a server and maintain it like all the other ones for a few grand a month. This company has billions of dollars. It's a drop in the bucket to them. They know how their game works. Why can't you people get it through your heads that it does nothing but benefit you that they're spending money on the game instead of hoarding it for some stockholders.

You genuinely don't realize it's not nearly that simple? Christ.

Its obvious you don't want to hear how much work official legacy realms would mean if Blizzard chose to do it. Once it's fully integrated it'd essentially be it's own separate game. Because people would expect it to be fully integrated with everything else. And support. And bug fixes. Bnet paid services. Transfers. Account data. Changes to their databases to accommodate legacy data...
Once you give it a minute thought you realize it'd be many months to make it work to the standard you and everyone would expect.

As much as I'd like official legacy realms it's obvious once you properly break it down that it's not worth the time

[Armourboy]

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That's just a problem with copyright laws inherently, because servers get shut down and things change in MMOs and online games.

They do, but it doesn't change the fact that if someone wants a 1972 Camaro they aren't seen as wearing rose tinted glasses or can't move on. Some people just like old cars. Some people just really like old MMO's. I know I do and I still have an active account on live.

[Deleted]

Too technically difficult doesn't mean impossible, it doesn't even mean Blizzard couldn't do it if they chucked a ton of cash at it.

Too technically difficult means that when you're looking at it as a business decision, what you'd need to do to get a satisfactory outcome isn't somewhere you'd feel comfortable being. In this case, I very much suspect its down to the initial investment needed to make it happen, just because a business can afford it - or has made money in the past - doesn't mean they should then spend frivolously. Even if it will make a profit in the long term, it still might not be worth the additional factors that come with it such as additional staff.

This isn't even a defence of Blizzard, this is just a defence of common-sense business practices. The main barrier I see is that you'd need a lot of staff bringing in to make it happen - but the moment its set up and the Vanilla environment is restored all those staff who coded and re-developed it for battle.net etc become redundant with the exception of a small team to keep it ticking over.

You wouldn't keep those people on standby for if/when they're needed again in the future, and just adding them meaninglessly to other development teams doesn't do anything for other games.

[Armourboy]

Why not just play Everquest, then? It actually meets all of those requirements. And how is the current game not a challenge compared to vanilla? You could basically afk through Molten Core. We were carrying a 70yr old lady in our MC group back in the day. Current dungeon bosses have more mechanics than most vanilla raid bosses.

Umm because Everquest is a different game and a different franchise? No really, original Everquest is a completely different design philosophy than even Vanilla WoW was.

There have always been carries and always will be. It's less so now because the tuning is better and they've had a ton of time to learn how to do so.

[jvbastel]

Why not just play Everquest, then? It actually meets all of those requirements. And how is the current game not a challenge compared to vanilla? You could basically afk through Molten Core. We were carrying a 70yr old lady in our MC group back in the day. Current dungeon bosses have more mechanics than most vanilla raid bosses.

I could play everquest - on a legal private server in fact (project 1999), irony - but I have no real connection to that game since I never played it.
Sure mechanics have gotten more complex,but you also have addons showing you every timer. Didn't blizzard evens tate that this was the reason they had to make those mechanics more complex?

I wasn't even talking about vanilla raids, and can't really talk about them since I have never done them while they were current. I was talking about the leveling experience. I was talking about original deadmines vs new deadmines. original zones vs new zones.

[Armourboy]

Too technically difficult doesn't mean impossible, it doesn't even mean Blizzard couldn't do it if they chucked a ton of cash at it.

Too technically difficult means that when you're looking at it as a business decision, what you'd need to do to get a satisfactory outcome isn't somewhere you'd feel comfortable being. In this case, I very much suspect its down to the initial investment needed to make it happen, just because a business can afford it - or has made money in the past - doesn't mean they should then spend frivolously. Even if it will make a profit in the long term, it still might not be worth the additional factors that come with it such as additional staff.

This isn't even a defence of Blizzard, this is just a defence of common-sense business practices. The main barrier I see is that you'd need a lot of staff bringing in to make it happen - but the moment its set up and the Vanilla environment is restored all those staff who coded and re-developed it for battle.net etc become redundant with the exception of a small team to keep it ticking over.

You wouldn't keep those people on standby for if/when they're needed again in the future, and just adding them meaninglessly to other development teams doesn't do anything for other games.

Gaming companies hire/fire all the time just to do specific projects, it is pretty common in the industry ( although I'm not sure if it is common within Blizzard)

[Biske]

Umm because Everquest is a different game and a different franchise? No really, original Everquest is a completely different design philosophy than even Vanilla WoW was.

There have always been carries and always will be. It's less so now because the tuning is better and they've had a ton of time to learn how to do so.

It's also more challenging than vanilla WoW and has all the things you people claim to want (an old-school mmo where exploration matters and dungeons are huge, sprawling messes, and where dying matters), but all you actually want is a trip down nostalgia lane.

[Grishnaar]

I have 0 knowledge what's going on, outside of topic titles.

What I see is this:

1) Blizzard can't "remake" it cause it's a serious operation.
2) Somehow, it worked until it got shutdown by Blizz.
3) Blizz can buy them and continue on, but...reasons
4) I'm pretty sure the info that I'm missing is relevant to the point that this post might not even bare any weight

Bored at work, my 2 cents xD

[Deleted]

Where were you when it was happening

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

[Armourboy]

I think you are comparing apples and oranges here in an attempt to make that position seem reasonable.

I can appreciate a camaro from 1972 and i wasn't even alive then... but how many people want Vanilla WoW realms who didn't play in Vanilla?

Not really, both groups like something that is old(er). One no one bats an eyelash at one, the other is viewed as living in the past and can't let go. I like old cars, I like old MMO's. It doesn't mean that I'm not still buying new cars or new MMO's or like them just as well.