Offical response from blizzard on legacy servers.

[Gadzooks]

One Word: Franchise

Just like Starbucks/McDonalds. So private servers could apply, get the legal right to do their thing and pay Blizzard a fee for it.
Blizzard pays for the servers, so if the fee isn't absurd the servers could run for free or sell cosmetics.

They already sell a franchise, it's called WoW Asia, and it's licensed by Netease.

Bring the kind of money that Netease does to the table, Blizzard might take a meeting.

And, why should Blizzard pay for the servers? If it's that viable a business model, the licensees can pay for their own damned servers. Like Netease does.

[tylenol]

Blizzard: here is an olive branch
Small % of community who wants this: fuck you, its not good enough

Years later:
Blizzard: here is a vanilla server
what little community that remains in a few months: where the fuck is TBC!?
what little community that remains: FIX THE GOD DAMN BUGS BLIZZARD!
what little community that remains: where is Wrath?!? BUGS, OP racials wtf, horrible service

[Deleted]

lol, retail servers are thriving atm, what happened to this game man? this server used to be the highest populated server in eu, now its listed as medium population and this is how many people are in orgrimmar at prime time in eu. just fucking lol

[FelPlague]

blizzard: Here is an olive branch
small % of community who wants this: Fuck you, its not good enough

years later:
Blizzard: Here is a vanilla server
what little community that remains in a few months: Where the fuck is tbc!?
What little community that remains: Fix the god damn bugs blizzard!
What little community that remains: Where is wrath?!? Bugs, op racials wtf, horrible service

im a warlock why cant i pve?
Im a warrior i dont wanna tank!

[Gadzooks]

A correction: they absolutely do have a backup (it's unimaginable that they don't, you have to fail epically not to have one with version control tools), it's just that it doesn't help much - they have to adopt the code that they had back then to work with the current battlenet, to fix numerous pesky bugs that were fixed in later expansions (think warrior's charge making you fall through the floor, there are hundreds of fixes like that to port), etc, etc, etc, and that's a ton of work. They'd also have to maintain that second branch of the code together with the modern one, that's some work as well.

It's more than that - they do not have ALL of the code. They have stated that, not that none of it exists. They don't have a complete set of working code for hardware they actioned off years ago, and won't work on current tech anyway, so it would all have to be rewritten. I doubt HP or whoever builds their custom blades would want to waste time building blades that are 11 years out of date, using archaic technology like SCSI - and then expect Blizzard to have devs who even know how to code for that, SCSI is so old now. And yes, the original blades used SCSI.

You kids can bellow "They're LYING" all you want, but it won't make a shiny, new set of server code show up magically that works perfectly with their current blade racks and custom networking gear. That's how children think. I know you won't stop bellowing it, tho, you have since TBC.

Link to someone who won one of the original blades, with photos and descriptions:

http://augustl.com/blog/2014/that_wow_server_blade/

[Feefel]

I'd be happy to settle for this but only IF they had multiple servers capped at their respective endgames. Why not have 5 'Pristine Servers' for Vanilla, TBC, Wrath, Cata, and MoP that have an exp lock once you reach 60, 70, 80, 85, 90?

Would happily play them if they were set up like this.

[Evolixe]

i dont want all the new fancy chat features and real id bullshit integrated into a new legacy server. it should be the same as it was back in the day.

I fail to see how integrated friendlists affect the game experience.

[Sierra85]

I fail to see how integrated friendlists affect the game experience.

mmo's are social. when the chat systems are updated or different it is not legacy. it is not representative of the legacy server. you can't have it both ways, although i guess you could make a case for why, but i dont see how it would change my mind. legacy is legacy. it should be as close to that as possible.

[Deleted]

It may not be better "right now" at this point in WoD content wise, but core gameplay wise it is leaps and bounds above Vanilla/TBC. MoP was 10x the game Vanilla/TBC were. Sure the community and child-like wonderment were cool in Vanilla and TBC but that won't ever be captured again regardless of if Blizzard released Classic servers.

The community and people in general are far too toxic nowadays for a community like WoW used to have.

TBC Launch: 2 tiers of raid content. 11+ dungeons, Pvp overhaul, Proffesion overhaul, Extra profession, 2 races (with begin zones) 7 amazing outlandish zones, dailies (orgi'la), Heroics that were challenging as fuck and the biggest class overhaul ever. Along with with amazing attunements and challenging mini-zones. Also flying, but fuck flying.

This was without a patch. This was the launch patch. Now, Maggy, nightbane and gruul were killed in 20 days for the first time. Kael'thas was killed after 2 and a half months after launch. 3 days before, black temple released.

Wotlk, Malygos, Kel'thuzad and the black drake (forgot name) 25m were cleared in 48 hours including time to level.

Content wise, it was better by a mile. Don't tell me tbc and vanilla were just good because of Nostalgia and community.

Edit: Forgot arena. Big game changer there.

[Jewsco]

I fail to see how integrated friendlists affect the game experience.

At this point hey make up anything to fit thier objective. Yes that is it bnet ruined wow. There I said it.

[Evolixe]

mmo's are social. when the chat systems are updated or different it is not legacy. it is not representative of the legacy server. you can't have it both ways, although i guess you could make a case for why, but i dont see how it would change my mind. legacy is legacy. it should be as close to that as possible.

Why? Because you said so?

That's not really how theise things work. And the majority of people would probably go for bnet integration if possible.
Either Xrealm inviting should be a thing, that is a different matter entirely.

[Sierra85]

Why? Because you said so?

i'm just stating my opinions, which i'm sure you are as well. conversations are fun!!

Yeesh! xrealm would be even worse, but i don't see there being that many legacy servers if they ever happen.

[Pann]

It's more than that - they do not have ALL of the code. They have stated that, not that none of it exists. They don't have a complete set of working code for hardware they actioned off years ago, and won't work on current tech anyway, so it would all have to be rewritten. I doubt HP or whoever builds their custom blades would want to waste time building blades that are 11 years out of date, using archaic technology like SCSI - and then expect Blizzard to have devs who even know how to code for that, SCSI is so old now. And yes, the original blades used SCSI.

You kids can bellow "They're LYING" all you want, but it won't make a shiny, new set of server code show up magically that works perfectly with their current blade racks and custom networking gear. That's how children think. I know you won't stop bellowing it, tho, you have since TBC.

Link to someone who won one of the original blades, with photos and descriptions:

http://augustl.com/blog/2014/that_wow_server_blade/

SCSI is an interface and still in use today.

[Borigrad]

Why? Because you said so?

That's not really how theise things work. And the majority of people would probably go for bnet integration if possible.
Either Xrealm inviting should be a thing, that is a different matter entirely.

So you want Legacy+ basically. How long until Legacy+ adds Transmog, Adds wardrobes, Add's new character models, new spell animations, dungeon finder and class balance.

How long until people complain that Shadow is unplayable or that Enhancement is a joke or that Ret shouldn't be a buff bot.

[Wolfheart9]

lol, retail servers are thriving atm, what happened to this game man? this server used to be the highest populated server in eu, now its listed as medium population and this is how many people are in orgrimmar at prime time in eu. just fucking lol

1) They already said they raised the pop cap on all servers in prep for Legion hence going form full to high or medium, unless you wear a tinfoil hat and think they're lying.
2) As current content gets further away from a city, you're going to see less people in that city, that's kind of a given.

[Evolixe]

So you want Legacy+ basically. How long until Legacy+ adds Transmog, Adds wardrobes, Add's new character models, new spell animations, dungeon finder and class balance.

I don't want anything "Legacy" persé. I'd just like for not everything to be set to "easymode".
It's the design philosophy more than it is the actual game. Whats the point in playing an old as shit game if another exists just as good?

The problem is that it's not as good... And legion isn't changing that.
Yes I have Alpha. No.. it's not "going to be better at launch". I've been a customer of blizzard long enough to know that while Alpha as is won't be live.. it won't have any massively overhauling changes to it either. Hell they don't even have the time for that anymore.

[Shakari]

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



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.

hmm

I don't get why people can't admit that wow isn't good anymore and vanilla/bc were better.

This is the amazing assumption that your right and that only your opnion is correct and even more so that the opinion of a small minority of players is correct over everyone else's.

in some ways TBC and Vanilla was to put it bluntly crap lol and some things it did well. Do I want to go back to "you can only see this content if your in the top 2% of all players" that the original Naxx was ummm no.

Do I want to spend 10 min running the entire length of a zone to just hand in one quest .... yeah thats great design ... not, oh and then get sent back to the other end of the zone.... sigh

Do I want to spend more time waiting for a BG than the average working day .... umm no.

Oh want to use that new weapon ... no you can't you have to grind for hours just to be able to hit something.

Want to tank ... YAY oh wait your not a warrior .... oh well..

Wanna play a druid and raid ... your a healer :P
Wanna play a pally and raid ... your a healer :P
Wanna play a preist and raid .. oh wait your a healer :P
and god forbid you use rend as a warrior thats a G-Kick offense :P

talk about stuck in a class role lol

Although TBH improved on this vanilla was dire.
I can go on and on.

Given all the pro's and cons the main thing that made Vanilla and TBC great were really the people I played it with, not the game in the long run, the game was fun but they were grind-fests in the main lol

I did enjoy them but I do like the expansions since and the game how its evolved.

Personally I'd like a fan of WotLK but even so don't know if I'd want to play it permanently.

[Deleted]

hmm




This is the amazing assumption that your right and that only your opnion is correct and even more so that the opinion of a small minority of players is correct over everyone else's.

in some ways TBC and Vanilla was to put it bluntly crap lol and some things it did well. Do I want to go back to "you can only see this content if your in the top 2% of all players" that the original Naxx was ummm no.

Do I want to spend 10 min running the entire length of a zone to just hand in one quest .... yeah thats great design ... not, oh and then get sent back to the other end of the zone.... sigh

Do I want to spend more time waiting for a BG than the average working day .... umm no.

Oh want to use that new weapon ... no you can't you have to grind for hours just to be able to hit something.

Want to tank ... YAY oh wait your not a warrior .... oh well..

Wanna play a druid and raid ... your a healer :P
Wanna play a pally and raid ... your a healer :P
Wanna play a preist and raid .. oh wait your a healer :P
and god forbid you use rend as a warrior thats a G-Kick offense :P

talk about stuck in a class role lol

Although TBH improved on this vanilla was dire.
I can go on and on.

Given all the pro's and cons the main thing that made Vanilla and TBC great were really the people I played it with, not the game in the long run, the game was fun but they were grind-fests in the main lol

I did enjoy them but I do like the expansions since and the game how its evolved.

Personally I'd like a fan of WotLK but even so don't know if I'd want to play it permanently.

I agree with Vanilla having it's issues. TBC improved heavily on that.
Just look at my post a little bit back in this thread.

[Borigrad]

I don't want anything "Legacy" persé. I'd just like for not everything to be set to "easymode".
It's the design philosophy more than it is the actual game. Whats the point in playing an old as shit game if another exists just as good?

The problem is that it's not as good... And legion isn't changing that.
Yes I have Alpha. No.. it's not "going to be better at launch". I've been a customer of blizzard long enough to know that while Alpha as is won't be live.. it won't have any massively overhauling changes to it either. Hell they don't even have the time for that anymore.

What easymode about the game? I was pushing heroic LK 25, short of three fights in ICC the game wasn't that hard, hell i'll go unpopular opinion. Some of the LFR fights in HFC are harder than Heroic ICC 25 and hard mode Ulduar, cause it actually involves mechanics and just not numerical difficulty.

Like i'm not trying to be condescending, you have 13/13 mythic, I don't I play casually now, PvP mostly, so what do you genuinely think is so easy in WoD compared to other expacs, discounting purely numerical difficulty.

[Failedpixel]

I haven't EVER heard someone say that.

Blizzard's reasons for not implementing flying had merit. Personally I think they should have stuck to their guns.

Flying definitely has its utility and I have explored MORE of WoD for having it.

I honestly NEVER heard any grumblings from cataclysm or MoP that flying ruined the game and players wanted it removed... cite that or remove it.

I complained about it. Flying should only be available in content once the content is not relevant. I said it in Wotlk, cata, and mop, you should not be able to fly in a continent until the expansion is over. I still believe this. I think having people on the ground is just better for the game. I don't support a lot of what Blizzard does lately, but the choice to not have flying accessible until later in the expansion is one I am behind.