Official Reply to Vanilla Servers and Nostalrius

[Deleted]

Btw, 32 bit code runs just fine under 32 bit Hardware and Software. Few tweaks maybe.

Actually there are much more issues with old code on new servers that anyone out there not working in Software Engineering even can imagine. Different Compiler Versions produce different results, Kernel-Implementations for Memory Managers may differ, CPU differences cause issues with multithreading (2 cores on 1 die is different from 1 core on 2 dies etc.). you would basically need the old servers from back then, i doubt they still have them around. It can be done but it might involve more than just a "few" tweaks.

[Aranes]

Vanilla Servers are absolutely stupid.

You dont want them anyways... you want your earlier years back. You want those experiences back.

Guess what... it aint happening.

[Demonfetus]

Everyone has their opinion so here is mine. Shutting down the server was an executive decision because we live in a legal world that has rules and things like that. Maybe they used it to make an example but we need to let that go. Moving on to the topic of OG WoW.

The dead horse is beaten. They have structurally changed their whole game, including servers and even battle.net. Whether they can or not I wouldn't do it for a minority of players. What they can do and have been doing is offering content for all the different types of customers they have. I am a vanilla WoW player from the open beta. I did everything under the sun in every single expansion and I can tell you the following.

1- storytelling now is better
2- without mods or heirlooms you can still level the hard way
3- PVP is still hard
4- you can still use ground mounts
5- You can still walk to the instance
6- Mythic absolutely destroys vanilla WoW difficulty

The only thing that you can complain about is that all the connectivity ruined the "small town feel"
Most people adapted to the new way the game works. You make your own adventure.

Personally I do believe the garrison and profession redesign, along with fewer instances/raids and unexplored warlord lore did hurt this expansion. I think they keep trying to move in the right direction for Legion. They do listen.

PS- If they shifted the whole game in the direction of "Vanilla" WoW would really die. IMHO. Too time consuming with long ass expansion development and boring open world questing. It was fun for the time, kind of like playing at the arcade.

[Edison]

Vanilla Servers are absolutely stupid.

You dont want them anyways... you want your earlier years back. You want those experiences back.

Guess what... it aint happening.

This must be the 10th time in the last 24 hours I see this ridiculous statement. If that were the case, vanilla private servers like Nostalrius wouldn't be a big thing.
Try again mate.

[Khain]

Pristine can be really good if they make it full a full hardcore realm. Think about it how long would people actually play a vanilla server that gets no updates, it would be dead after a year or so, because the nostalgia will end and people will get bored of getting nothing new at all. Pristine realms if made right can still capture the feeling of an mmo and get the patch updates that bring fresh things into the game.

[Asotcha]

I like the idea of pristine realms--it would remove a lot of things people fuss about, maintain a vibrant, guild-centric community on those realms, and also preserve some aspects of the leveling journey that so many of us are fond of. Plus since they arent connected to many of those features, theres a chance that they wouldn't be so difficult for bliz to implement since they wouldn't have to be woven into that 'network' like the other realms. I voted yes.

[dimedog]

I think a realm that basically 'restarted' WoW could be interesting. It would start as vanilla, but get patches, and expansions at the same or maybe a slightly accelerated rate as they happened a decade ago. So while we're on the expansion after Legion, they could be on the Naxx patch (1.11), and so on. People would get the vanilla experience, but not be trapped in it forever, and they could gradually move onto other content they may have missed out on or just plain miss (a lot of the nostalgia I hear people asking for is BC/Wrath era).

They could introduce a new realm each expansion, that served as another restart point. So people who were thrust into BC on expansion after Legion launch could hop back into vanilla world if they really wanted to, or they could just keep leveling to the new (70) cap.

[Asotcha]

.. this will probably cost a raid tier. I am almost sure about this.

Also - people change. Not sure how real communities are possible in this times.

Oh its possible I think that people who maybe joined more recently and haven't seen it in action will be amazed at how a guild-centered community can actually be and feel. It may not seem possible because current systems in place for convenience undermine this kind of play and those things are more difficult to foster, but dollars to doughnuts, it can happen and everyone playing a pristine server will see it with their own eyes.

[akse]

What a joke post from Blizzard.. Damage control yeah.

I know before (1-3 years ago) all this demand for legacy servers there was a huge amount of posts in Blizz Forums about leveling up being to fast and easy. This Pristine Realms is most likely some old plan they have had to make leveling less fast and easy.

But those exp nerfs should already be in the freaking main game.. the leveling experience is ridiculous.

In addition to exp nerfs they should fix the low level content. The scaling should be fixed. If the level 60/70/80 raid content would feel challenging in the Live game we could lock our characters to our desired level and do the raid content there.

It wouldn't be the same as a real legacy server but at least a step to the right direction. This would also make the world much bigger and the amount of content huge. Think about now that we have over 1 year without new content.. we could just step into our level70 guy and start raiding in TBC.

Anyways atm I play in Vanilla realm and even the leveling up is a joy for me. Even when I would be done with all raiding content some day.. there would still be left PvP and leveling new characters in a bit different areas.. the world is so huge in the old game and there is a lot to do.

[Deleted]

Vanilla Servers are absolutely stupid.

You dont want them anyways... you want your earlier years back. You want those experiences back.

No doubt this is true for some, and you might well be right that they'll leave once that dawns on them.

However, for others - many others - Classic WoW is a different game from Current WoW, and it's a game they want to play, whether they have memories of Classic WoW from 2004 and 2005 or not.

Plenty of people on private servers are also first time Classic players, as many discussions about the topic have shown.

[Deleted]

Blizz is still obv not listening

Nope, and good for them

[Deleted]

This must be the 10th time in the last 24 hours I see this ridiculous statement. If that were the case, vanilla private servers like Nostalrius wouldn't be a big thing.
Try again mate.

Private servers work because people dont have to pay to play? Would they still play if they had to pay same fee as Blizzard demands? Besides many private servers work because people want to cheat, feel powerful and they cannot cheat on official servers.

I would like to remind you Cataclysm and Molten Core experiences. Look also on no-dualspec idea for Legion and how people hate it already (yey doing dps dailies as healer/tank). Guess what, people hate the idea.

Do you ever install old games out of nostalgia? I do and I noticed that in most of cases I uninstall them the day after. They don't live up to nostalgia, I have already done them in past and many times so there is no excitement left. Its same with Vanilla servers, just nostalgia that may work for a month or two.

[Eldarus]

They need to stop with this "instance difficulty" crap, just make one version hard as hell and let people "EARN IT".
Quest Events around the world where mobs endlessly fight each other also should be removed or made more dynamic and players could either win or fill environment with corpses, remember Stitch in Duskwood?
Professions should really mean something, i miss Alchemy and potions.
No more Dungeon Finder, people should learn to communicate and move their "as..." to the dungeon, that is where World PVP occurs.
No more flying mounts.

However in my opinion one of best options also just to make for every expansion different realms, and let people chose where they want to play, if they feel ready to go the next expansion they can do it whenever they feel ready, not whenever Blizzard force them. I think this would bring back many players as those who loved playing in LK or TBC or Vanilla or missed the content and want to experience it they would have that option.

[Captnrex]

They need to stop with this "instance difficulty" crap, just make one version hard as hell and let people "EARN IT".
Quest Events around the world where mobs endlessly fight each other also should be removed or made more dynamic and players could either win or fill environment with corpses, remember Stitch in Duskwood?
Professions should really mean something, i miss Alchemy and potions.
No more Dungeon Finder, people should learn to communicate and move their "as..." to the dungeon, that is where World PVP occurs.
No more flying mounts.

However in my opinion one of best options also just to make for every expansion different realms, and let people chose where they want to play, if they feel ready to go the next expansion they can do it whenever they feel ready, not whenever Blizzard force them. I think this would bring back many players as those who loved playing in LK or TBC or Vanilla or missed the content and want to experience it they would have that option.

No
No
Profs are better in legion again
Yeah not happening
Ha no again

Not going to get multiple different servers...ever

[SmmLahamu]

I personally like that Blizzard responded, however I voted NO for pristine realms because that would only change the game we currently have and not bring back the old one. I would like old stats, spells and talents to feel the heat!
With Blizzard´s talent and (old) dedication legacy is totally possible. I just hope for their will to make this for the fans!
Thank you in advance, Blizz!

[Angeredsoul]

Current patch, one faction, no flying and all the other mentioned details for pristine and I'm in. No desire to play previous content though.

[Deleted]

Vanilla Servers are absolutely stupid.

You dont want them anyways... you want your earlier years back. You want those experiences back.

Guess what... it aint happening.

You're wrong.

We went ahead and tried it and guess what? We do want vanilla servers, because we loved that game.
It's fine that you don't feel the same way, but stop assuming that everybody feels the same as you do.

- - - Updated - - -

It is not plug and play, do you think that a large corporation is going to take an outside sources code and plug it in to their servers. The security risks alone built into this are huge, next you also have to adjust it to integrate their code into your current server hardware and OS base. Next your have to also build in the battle.net login system for account management. to use your words taking some group of random coder's code into your major cororation is a slippery slope that only ends in security issues.

Thanks for pointing that out. But considering that they'd probably double their subscriber count, would it not be worth it? It still sounds like a tiny investment in comparison to other things they're working on. They don't need to write the code itself, they only need to check it over. They probably have some automatic software to do that. They already have battle.net with multiple games and extra realms (beta, ptr, arena) wired in. All they need to do is add another, albeit for another game client.

[Airbag888]

Reasons why I enjoyed vanilla that won't come back with a vanilla server:
I had finished college and was in a laid back job
I had tons of free time to grind/play
I had little RL responsibilities
I had never played an MMO before (I literally never used roads because it would increase the likelihood I'd run in the other faction and I had around 1kms ping at the time)

Reasons why I enjoyed Vanilla
There were no faction/server xfers. People knew each other and your existence wasn't diluted (unless if you wanted anonymity)
Faction rivalry was strong both in game and RL. You could see that in game and on forums.
The game was less polished but there was more in a way. Organised world pvp was a thing before BGs, huge boss roadblocks, content that you could only access if you beat the boss at a single difficulty level, etc

Pristine servers wouldn't really restore those unfortunately

At worst they should make a server with no CRZ in current content zones, no server xfers after a moratory say 2 weeks or faction changes or name changes. we'd be able to form a community that's not shifting all the time. Right now everyone you meet is almost just another name in the crowd. Names used to matter and mean something in vanilla

[Deleted]

On the subject of things that don't add up, lame throw this out there. If this task is technically feasible as you believe it is and it would be profitable, then why has blizzard stated for years they won't do it? Do they have a grudge against vanilla wow? What's more realistic, the evil company wants to oppress their player base, or the company is unable to bring the product to market and turn a profit (that would be enough to justify the risk)?
As for the subject of "amauteurs made it work, why can't Blizzard?" The typical explanation is the expectation of quality from blizzard is much higher than of private servers, plus integrating into current blizzard systems.

I know, it's weird right?
It probably has something to do with pride, arrogance and catering to casual children, at the expense of the hardcore playerbase.

[Edison]

Private servers work because people dont have to pay to play? Would they still play if they had to pay same fee as Blizzard demands? Besides many private servers work because people want to cheat, feel powerful and they cannot cheat on official servers.

I would like to remind you Cataclysm and Molten Core experiences. Look also on no-dualspec idea for Legion and how people hate it already (yey doing dps dailies as healer/tank). Guess what, people hate the idea.

Do you ever install old games out of nostalgia? I do and I noticed that in most of cases I uninstall them the day after. They don't live up to nostalgia, I have already done them in past and many times so there is no excitement left. Its same with Vanilla servers, just nostalgia that may work for a month or two.

Cheat? You obviously don't have any clue of what Nostalrius was. It was a blizzlike vanilla server and I bet you 90% would pay a fee to play. The amount of people willing to pay for legacy servers is huge. "It's the same with vanilla servers, just nostalgia" this has already been debunked so many times. It's not about nostalgia. It's about wanting to play a different MMO. Believe it or not but the old wow and the current shell of what used to be WoW is two hugely different things. Nostalrius population kept growing for a year until they got shut down, how come? if it's only nostalgia. And now when Nostalrius has been shut down, another one will take it's place until we get legacy servers.