Official Reply to Vanilla Servers and Nostalrius

[ChexMix]

Would I play on a pristine server? If my understanding is correct, then no, I would not. I don't want the current game with certain things removed, because it is still just the current game. I want the old game, with the original old world, where the Plaguelands were actual plagued lands, Shadowfang Keep was filled with worgen, Redridge Mountains wasn't a Rambo ripoff, Moonbrook was deadly, and Orgrimmar wasn't a metallic eye sore. I want ZG and ZA as raids, BRS as level 60(ish), Deadmines with Mr Smite and Vincent VanCleef, the AQ stuff in Silithus, and Ragefire being filled with trogs.

What I would like Blizzard to do, is similar to what EQ does: legacy progression servers. Start out with 1.0, then after the amount of time the original major patches were released (ones that added in dungeons and/or raids), have a survey asking if people would like them to release the next raid/dungeon or put it off for a week, and keep doing this. Same goes with the release of the next expansion. And to make sure you get the responses, make the survey mandatory before you can get to the character selection screen, and only being able to enter the game world after selecting "Yes" or "No".

I don't like the new 1-60 world, and having a "pristine server" which is just the current game with the community-killing implementations, wouldn't work for me. I miss the old Tirion Fordring questline ending in taking out the Scarlet Crusade in Hearthglen, the old Nessingwary questline where you had to find the pages of the Green Hills of Stranglethorn, then kill tigers and panthers and raptors until you had to take out the white tiger which was actually tough. The old Duskwood talking about the Black Riders. I want the old world back, not the new shit with a few features removed. I want Darkshore/Auberdine back.

This is the only comment Blizz needs to pay attention too. GG sir!

[Akqwas]

The poll should ask people how long they would actually play. I would love to hop on casually, but after I reach level cap for the first time my intrest in leveling would dramatically decline, then raiding would be very exciting, until I've killed the bosses a few times and received good gear. Altogether I would most likely play maybe a year at max. Which I don't believe would really be worth Blizzards time to create. I would love to go back and experience this stuff, but I really can't.

[papajohn4]

I don't get why people would love to be stuck on AQ40 for the past 10 years, the boredom will kill the server.

the fact alone that you name a raid as like it will be peoples main activity, shows how far you are from vanilla philosophy. Let me tell you, vast majority of players didnt give a shit about raiding... and of course never used a single raid to describe the state of the content.

[Deleted]

I would gladly pay $100/month for a retail vanilla server. Not joking. This pristine server thing seems to miss the point entirely.

E: it's not about fucking nostalgia blizz, I just want a grindy mmo and vanilla is the best one I ever played. I used to love wow so much, but I lost interest with the sundering.

So you're after a grindy mmo ay maybe look into legion ? 750k honour to grind out for the top prestiege rank on top of 1-3 grind to unlock 1 of your artifacts ?ow then you have keystone dungeons to grind out weekly to push your keystone level or and maybe add profs ontop of that ?. But hey if you dont like that idea of a grindy mmo try eso there is atleast 200 hours of quest grinding that i feel has the best story telling quests out there

[Rexob]

I wish that someone that has access to the US forums and that blue post to say that in there. The devs appear to talk about vanilla a lot. But it's pretty obvious the fact that's free is very important and I strongly suspect it's the main reason.

Two Reasons:

• Legally in the U.S., if an organization does NOT actively take necessary measures to protect their IP they become vulnerable to any future issues regarding said IP.

• Blizzard does OWN the exclusive rights to WoW, and without receiving consent granting permission "private servers" can be considered stealing from a legal standpoint.

I have nothing against people enjoying Vanilla, but there are laws in most nations protecting IP which includes multi-billion dollar companies to individuals. I have never met an artist, of any kind, who thought it was fair for someone else to claim rights of IP without permission, and businesses are no different.

[Rotted]

Its nice to see a reply on this, lets get that straight from the word go.

However I don't like the idea of Pristine servers.

I wouldn't really associate any of the suggestions with it to classic wow, I'd call it the blizzard official version of the iron man challenge, and that's with a pinch of salt.

The main issue with it, is that its still current content based. Many of us who were playing Nos played it because we missed the content as much as some of us missed the "Effort" / "difficulty" of the vanilla set up.

If we had a pristine WoD now, I wouldn't play it, and thats even if the pristine and normal opened at the same time.

I don't doubt it would be difficult and costly to set up a classic server, but I am curious as to why your in contact with former Nos staff. The sensible guess would be having that team possibly working on the pristine servers. The hopeful guess would be employing them to set up Nos as an official server, under blizzard trade mark, under warcraft, not independently.

Now, don't get me wrong I'm not a business head like so many people here are claiming to be. But I'm pretty sure there would be a way you could rent out a private license to them to host a server.

[Stacie]

Once you hit level cap and clear everything and gear up what then? Another alt to do the same? What happens when you have done it on all of them in a few years? There is going to be no new content or features, your see the live retail getting updated with cool things while you are stuck with the same old content. I think the realms would work for a year or so then interest would be lost fairly quick after than turning it into a money pit.

[Lolsteak]

Pristine = wod but slower? Get the fuck out of here

[Deleted]

They can shove their prestine realm up their rich ass. Im not gonna pay 13 euros a month again to sit in my class order hall playing world of facebookgame. Tbh i kinda expected this kind of reply, because i have been getting disappointet by blizzard since Cata.

[curtislow011]

What about taking the team that is working on in game mini games and putting that team towards legacy servers?

[Froggy]

Pristine realm sounds better than the current experience. However, I'd want more than just the XP bonuses and heirlooms turned off. Leveling would still be too fast and easy. Mobs get 1-2 shot even in garbage gear.

[Thelxi]

Wow that thread really paid off didn't it. Of course pristine servers are a long way from a vanilla server, but hey it got the ball rolling!

[zrvnavi]

lol at people falling for this pristine crap, completely disregards the actual problem. How about instead of wasting resources on making previous versions of your game, you give people a reason to play the current one.

[Dekkers]

Pristine servers. Lol, what a joke.
That is not what we want at all. I want to step into a time capsule back to 2004 and play the game exactly as it was then.

[Vorrum]

Once you hit level cap and clear everything and gear up what then? Another alt to do the same? What happens when you have done it on all of them in a few years? There is going to be no new content or features, your see the live retail getting updated with cool things while you are stuck with the same old content. I think the realms would work for a year or so then interest would be lost fairly quick after than turning it into a money pit.

This isnt the vanilla mentality, have you tried playing on the classic servers? It's not a rush to see the end content like it is now, its about the ride and how you get there. It would take you 3 months to get to 60 alone, and then the raid content would take maybe 6 months if you're in an average guild. Wanna do it again? Sure go ahead, thats another 9 months. It could take longer if you take your time and mingle with people and do pvp. I'm not saying that just what youre saying is wrong, its the way you're thinking about it that is wrong too.

[Sabever]

Once you hit level cap and clear everything and gear up what then? Another alt to do the same? What happens when you have done it on all of them in a few years? There is going to be no new content or features, your see the live retail getting updated with cool things while you are stuck with the same old content. I think the realms would work for a year or so then interest would be lost fairly quick after than turning it into a money pit.

It isn't content that caused people to love old WoW, it is the community. I can understand and appreciate how some people believe that the game would deteriorate without new content. However I contend that you are looking at it from the perspective different from those who actually want Vanilla legacy servers. We want it for different reasons, not the reasons that you play think we play for.

There is another huge advantage to no new content. It gives people time to do thinks like kill quest mobs and world pvp. WPVP in Vanilla was amazing. No one had this idea of a new expansion. No one cared. And the game was growing up until the new expansion, more people were in the world and the game just kept growing. It didn't grow because we got new content. It grew because it was fun.

[quras]

the laws work such that if you dont actively protect your IP, anyone can take advantage of it later to any extreme degree and you cant do anything about it because you didnt do anything about it during previous occasions

While that is true. What I find hard to beileve is that blizzard cannot create their own contract for them to license their own material. There are contract agreements all the time for licenses of IPs which are covered by existing laws.

There are ways blizzard could do this and Nostalrius still stay up and running but blizzard would have to do a bit of work on contract creation.

Pristine realms are not the same thing as what Nostalrius had. I'd would pass on pristine realms.

[hulkgor]

Their definition of "Pristine realm" has absolutely nothing to do with what people want, and not the reason why they play on private vanilla\tbc realms. I wouldn't step foot on that realm.

But it's their acknowledgement that they're listening to the feedback, so, KEEP THE PRESSURE. It's bound to happen!

[Deleted]

Guys you can't see the wood for the trees... "Pristine" is a bait. Playing with words and nothing more. Basically one day work for them.

Vanilla or TBC is completely different experience... "new" spells, quiver, arrow, librams, stratholme, scholomance, scarlet monastery in their true form. etc.

Blizzard always amaze me how greedy they are: 10 people can make a legacy server without scripts and money what a multi-billion company cannot.
And I don't know who is their PR manager but he should be fired. This bad PR is not very useful for Legion

[UnknownShadows00]

Wow, never though I'd see the day where Blizzard would acknowledge a private server by name.