Open Letter to Blizzard Entertainment from Mark Kern

[Draenox]

The most amusing thing about all this, is that the pristine realm idea Blizzard proposed would be absolutely nothing like these private servers, it would just be current retail with all the leveling benefits disabled by the looks of it.

All the people I knew who played or has played private servers was because they had no money for retail. I seriously doubt a paid legacy server would reach anywhere near the 1 million mark that Nostalrius did. All of this is getting so tiresome, Blizzard said "no vanilla realms" in the nicest way possible with the recent post, people just can't let it go.

[Eliseus]

Any proof to this?

Even still how Daybreak handled EQ and how Blizzard handles Wow/Battlenet is two different things. Once again just because X does it does not mean Y can.

Then you have to factor in cost and blizzard clearly thinks it isn't worth it. Don't like the current product stop playing, But accept there answer and move on. Blizzard is not going to make progression servers.

That will open pandora's box anyway. You get classis,next guy wants TBC and another wants wrath or cata. Wow has moved past that point and its best you do as well.

Blizzard doesn't some how fucking defly the laws of physics or some shit. They follow the same things all these other companies do. They aren't fucking recreating the wheel. Jesus.

Obviously you have never played Everquest and it saddens me I have to even prove this to you.

The Shadows of Luclin
EverQuest: The Shadows of Luclin
Developer(s) Sony Online Entertainment
Publisher(s) Sony Online Entertainment
Release date(s) December 4, 2001

The third expansion pack, EverQuest: The Shadows of Luclin, was released on December 4, 2001, a year after the second. The expansion focuses on high-level content; it provides a number of zones meant to be used by large groups of players and a number of extremely powerful monsters to fight.

The expansion takes place on a moon of Norrath called Luclin and introduces the Vah Shir, a playable catlike race, and the Beastlord character class. Notable NPC races that were added to the EverQuest universe are the Shissar, a snake-like race, and the Akhevans. The Shadows of Luclin also incorporates a new game engine, new character models and gives players the ability to design graphic user interfaces. The appearance of the player's character was completely redesigned, giving them more layers and rounder shapes. Mounts were also introduced with this expansion – they allow players to regenerate their Health and Mana without generating as much aggro (hatred from monsters). Alternate Advancement started with the Luclin expansion which allows players to further grow and customize their classes.

The game includes many zones in which players of all levels can experience, several raid encounters such as the Lord Inquisitor Seru, and a high-end raiding zone, Vex Thal. SoL also introduced some new events that made some encounters more challenging than before, especially in the Ssraeshza Temple zone.

The Shissars (serpent-like creatures) were extremely powerful beings who once roamed the continent of Kunark where they had enslaved the Iksars. Rile, an Iksar hero, started a revolution and called upon a mystical force referred to as the Greenmist, who then killed the Shissars. Fleeing Norrath because the atmosphere became toxic, the surviving Shissars were helped by the Combine Empire and were sent to Luclin and the underwater sanctuary introduced years later with "The Buried Sea".

On Luclin, the Shissars built the temple of Ssraeshza - home of the powerful Emperor Ssraeshza (powerful enough to slay gods according to game lore). To protect themselves from the Greenmist, the Shissars magically sealed the Grey, a place where no atmosphere exists, and built their temple. Ssraeshza Temple (also known as Ssra) is part of the access to the high end zone of Vex Thal. Defeating the Emperor required completion of a key "quest" inside the zone, requiring the player(s) to track down, kill, and collect many other items, as well as collecting special weapons which did special damage to the emperor; The Emperor is immune to regular weapons, making the special weapons necessary for his death. Such weapons were introduced with SoL and are referred to as Bane Weapons. Later on, a Shadow Knight only quested weapon was introduced in Cabilis and called the Greenmist (Sacred Khukri of Rile), the most powerful Shissar-bane weapon.

[rogueMatthias]

legacy servers are a pointless waste of time.

At the moment they're just a gimmick for players which is why they're popular. Few people would actually raise a character on one. What'd be the point? The whole idea of an MMO is that you keep progressing, but you'd reach the end of vanilla and just be stuck there. I guess you could keep raiding the same raids... forever??

I played Vanilla. It was amazing (if not incredibly frustrating) at the time... because it was new and because it was different. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE THAT EXPERIENCE WITH IT AGAIN. Every quest and item and event and map is so well documented now that there can never be that sense of exploration again, and the graphics are so dated that there can't be any sense of wonder. That's why there's no feeling of exploration anymore... you've seen every bloody model and boss mechanic datamined months before the expansions are even out. Don't blame Blizzard for that.

Gaming has changed SO much since then, that it wouldn't stand up to todays market. This whole "PLAYERS WANT VANILLA SERVERS WAAAAAA" thing is just like a guy looking back on his ex with rose tinted shades and think if he got back with her everything would be great again.

MOVE ON.

[SoulSoBreezy]

Because reusing a slogan has never been done before. "HURR DURR TRUMP IS HITLER HURR MAKING JOKES IS LIKE HOLOCAUST!"
Also, the only gain Mark would gain from this would be attention, unless he plans on leaving retirement, which I highly doubt.

For all you saying the papers are empty.
https://youtu.be/mFAadmkAd7g
And for christ's sake, paper is recyclable with a minimal loss.

Ah, so he retired. I wonder what happened to http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-entertainment

[Eliseus]

this this this

Its just a bunch of cheapskates that play nostalrius cuz its free

- - - Updated - - -



U mean its like politics, cuz just like there its just the loud dumb minority yelling for vanilla servers without using their head

"Yeah, they be dumb, don't do, me don't like".

[Jtbrig7390]

Blizzard doesn't some how fucking defly the laws of physics or some shit. They follow the same things all these other companies do. They aren't fucking recreating the wheel. Jesus.

Obviously you have never played Everquest and it saddens me I have to even prove this to you.

Yes I have played Everquest(Not much of EQ1 but more so of EQ2). You don't seem to understand that each game isn't coded the same.

Stop being a arm chair coder because clearly you don't have a fucken clue. How blizzard has coded WoW even more so with Battle.net is not the same how Everquest was coded.

As I stated don't be a arm chair coder because you clearly don't have a clue, Finally the cost to blizzard is clearly not worth it to them. They don't want to go back into the past, They want to advance the game/story forward.

So ether accept the choice they made or go somewhere else because classic isn't returning.

Even if they did do it the experince would not be the same.

You can't go home twice....sorry.

[analmoose]

well. there went three minutes fourty seconds of my life I won't get back.

figures don't lie, but liars do a lot of figuring.

let see the stack of papers of those who do not support dredging up old content.

What the fuck would that have to do with anything? A bunch of crybabies like the non flying crowd trying to block content that they aren't forced to use? If you would quit wow because someone else could play on a legit legacy server, you should also quit life.

[Wolfheart9]

Yes I have played Everquest. You don't seem to understand that each game isn't coded the same.

Stop being a arm chair coder because clearly you don't have a fucken clue. How blizzard has coded WoW even more so with Battle.net is not the same how Everquest was coded.

As I stated don't be a arm chair coder because you clearly don't have a clue, Finally the cost to blizzard is clearly not worth it to them. They don't want to go back into the past, They want to advance the game/story forward.

So ether accept the choice they made or go somewhere else because classic isn't returning.

I'd cut the conversation if I were you.. Every time someone stops replying to him he latches onto someone else to try an endless roundabout argument with. You're not going to convince him of anything, you won't budge any of his views. Best to just move on. Take it or leave it though.

[A dot Ham]

Everquest 2 still exists and does progression servers also. Everquest next canceled due to the same reason that Titan is claimed to be canceled. They were doing new and innovative things, but it just wasn't fun.

Titan wasn't a direct sequel to WoW though... just another mmo.

On top of that Daybreak isn't a publicly traded company so good luck finding information to prove their financial health... isn't that convenient. So you can only speculate that Daybreak is doing just fine, whereas I can prove that Activision Blizzard is doing more than just fine.

[Eliseus]

Yes I have played Everquest. You don't seem to understand that each game isn't coded the same.

Stop being a arm chair coder because clearly you don't have a fucken clue. How blizzard has coded WoW even more so with Battle.net is not the same how Everquest was coded.

As I stated don't be a arm chair coder because you clearly don't have a clue, Finally the cost to blizzard is clearly not worth it to them. They don't want to go back into the past, They want to advance the game/story forward.

So ether accept the choice they made or go somewhere else because classic isn't returning.

Even if they did do it the experince would not be the same.

You can't go home twice....sorry.

Great argument for the topic at hand. Thanks for providing nothing worth salt in your arugment. Oh and you mean their choice.

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.

What exactly is there choice here?

Btw, I actually am a programmer in a family of programmers. Obviously the code isn't the same or WoW would be Everquest.

[Normie]

Self-aggrandizing blowhard stirring the shit in something where he has no stake or responsibility BUT does have an axe to grind. In other words, just another attention-seeking troll on the interwebs. Nothing to see here; move along.

<southpark>rabblerabblerabblerabble</southpark>

[analmoose]

Yes I have played Everquest(Not much of EQ1 but more so of EQ2). You don't seem to understand that each game isn't coded the same.

Stop being a arm chair coder because clearly you don't have a fucken clue. How blizzard has coded WoW even more so with Battle.net is not the same how Everquest was coded.

As I stated don't be a arm chair coder because you clearly don't have a clue, Finally the cost to blizzard is clearly not worth it to them. They don't want to go back into the past, They want to advance the game/story forward.

So ether accept the choice they made or go somewhere else because classic isn't returning.

Even if they did do it the experince would not be the same.

You can't go home twice....sorry.

Except, i have set up a working server on my laptop that ran just fine forever. It didn't cost me anything, and I'm literally computer retarded. I just followed a simple tutorial. Pretty sure with the resources blizzard has available it would be a drop in the bucket, and almost pure profit

[Jtbrig7390]

I'd cut the conversation if I were you.. Every time someone stops replying to him he latches onto someone else to try an endless roundabout argument with. You're not going to convince him of anything, you won't budge any of his views. Best to just move on. Take it or leave it though.

Ya I said my peace and I'm done replying to him.

Blizzard has made there choice and people need to just accept it and move on.

[rogueMatthias]

What the fuck would that have to do with anything? A bunch of crybabies like the non flying crowd trying to block content that they aren't forced to use? If you would quit wow because someone else could play on a legit legacy server, you should also quit life.

Well, you could argue that if he's paying a subscription and a lot of that money is going on Vanilla servers he's never going to use, rather than all going on new content then it makes sense he wouldn't support it... but Blizz is already spending your subscription money on store pets and little actual content so that doesn't really hold anymore.

I don't really care if they do add them. There'll be a huge glut of people trying them for a month or two and then no-one will use them. Even the people on private servers now won't because they won't be a special snowflake anymore. I can guarantee there'd end up FAR FAAAAARRR less people on them then on RP realms.

[Plutarch78]

The code is no where near the same. Everquest actually completely redid their engine in an era that this would be more expensive than it is now and with a player base the size of what would probably be on the classic servers. They also claimed the original game didn't exist and every time a new progression server comes around it is more like the actual era the expansion comes out in.

And thats would Blizzard would have to do if they wanted to bring back classic WoW. They would have to take the current game and undo all the changes made since Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, and Warlords of Draenor (quests, doodads, destroyed or altered landscapes, mob placement and behavior, original dungeons, items, re-code and re-implement spells and talents that have been removed, turn off flying, disable the cash/token shop, etc.) Then set aside a separate team of support, Q&A, CM's and IT techs to manage the separate classic servers. People are asking for alot and they don't even know it.

[Eliseus]

Titan wasn't a direct sequel to WoW though... just another mmo.

On top of that Daybreak isn't a publicly traded company so good luck finding information to prove their financial health... isn't that convenient. So you can only speculate that Daybreak is doing just fine, whereas I can prove that Activision Blizzard is doing more than just fine.

Luckily for you all of this was happening while the company was still with Sony. Nothing new.

[A dot Ham]

In the name of socialists everywhere I protest being compared to that tool ;P

ma bad... old habits... I meant to say communist.

[Eliseus]

I'd cut the conversation if I were you.. Every time someone stops replying to him he latches onto someone else to try an endless roundabout argument with. You're not going to convince him of anything, you won't budge any of his views. Best to just move on. Take it or leave it though.

The issue at hand is you don't provide anything to support your opinion. No one is going to change their views because you just say so.

[Wolfheart9]

Except, i have set up a working server on my laptop that ran just fine forever. It didn't cost me anything, and I'm literally computer retarded. I just followed a simple tutorial. Pretty sure with the resources blizzard has available it would be a drop in the bucket, and almost pure profit

You ran a working, non emulated (Something that even Nos couldn't do), vanilla server supporting thousands of accounts and the ability to have hundreds of people in the same zone (Something vanilla wow wasn't able to do on it's original hardware), and 2-3 thousand players online at the same time without ever crashing? I'm impressed.

[Jtbrig7390]

Except, i have set up a working server on my laptop that ran just fine forever. It didn't cost me anything, and I'm literally computer retarded. I just followed a simple tutorial. Pretty sure with the resources blizzard has available it would be a drop in the bucket, and almost pure profit

So you run something someone else made.. Thats not the same as coding a MMO to work on a server. All you did was run a emulation of the game and nothing more.

Prove its pure profit for them, there is things like server cost and cost of GM's and so on. There is no money it in for them and to add the servers would be dead within 6 months.

What made Classic,TBC hard was bugs and lack of info. Now you can find anything out about anything in a few sec's. Hell look at all the info we know of Legion and it isn't even out yet.

I call bullshit that you ran anything really.