Offical response from blizzard on legacy servers.

[Deleted]

Pristine realms are nothing more than an exercise in hand-waving because Blizzard don't want to cave on their legacy server stance, but are perhaps coming round to the idea that they're going to have to. You can paint it in whichever romanticized ideals you like; the concept of a pristine realm does not serve what the legacy players want in any way, shape or form.

Completely agree on that. Blizzard will just open pandoras box, as the "classic nostalgist"-minority will demand more, and more, and more.

[Pua]

Completely agree on that. Blizzard will just open pandoras box, as the "classic nostalgist"-minority will demand more, and more, and more.

Personally, I support legacy servers but believe the line absolutely needs to be drawn there. Servers for TBC and Wrath are wholly unnecessary, and not worth the effort (IMHO). If Blizzard do shift their stance and create legacy servers, that needs to be an end to it.

[Pann]

Completely agree on that. Blizzard will just open pandoras box, as the "classic nostalgist"-minority will demand more, and more, and more.

I see it the other way, Pristine realms do not and will not fulfil the desire for a Vanilla realm and will more than likely be a failure which Blizzard will then see as proof that there is no demand for a classic realm.

[Deleted]

I think blizzard should legally license legacy servers. Players who would play them would have to pay blizzard the sub, but the companies that would run legacy servers could chose a version they would like to offer to the customers. Without any need of blizzard to support further development for their choice. And it also would be the resellers job to get a system up and running with old database structures and servers.

[Eapoe]

I think blizzard should legally license legacy servers. Players who would play them would have to pay blizzard the sub, but the companies that would run legacy servers could chose a version they would like to offer to the customers. Without any need of blizzard to support further development for their choice. And it also would be the resellers job to get a system up and running with old database structures and servers.

Blizzard won't do this because of a very simple reason. Opening their game to a 3rd party will let said party make changes and open up Blizzard to having their product change in any number of ways and bypassing copyright law that then protects their property from being changed and becoming a misrepresentation of their product.

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Personally, I support legacy servers but believe the line absolutely needs to be drawn there. Servers for TBC and Wrath are wholly unnecessary, and not worth the effort (IMHO). If Blizzard do shift their stance and create legacy servers, that needs to be an end to it.

Again this is opinion based. I appreciate the input, but just to vice verse your reasoning, I would rather play on a WotLK Legacy if Blizz ever opens themselves to it. It was by far the most popular to date and had the most active subs, it was where I started playing, and to go hand in hand with what vanilla people are saying, leveling was still a chore and had emphasis placed on actual interaction with other players outside of a guild when looking for others to run dungeons or raids with. Also, again in my opinion, had some of the best designed raids and raid bosses to date.

[Deleted]

Blizzard won't do this because of a very simple reason. Opening their game to a 3rd party will let said party make changes and open up Blizzard to having their product change in any number of ways and bypassing copyright law that then protects their property from being changed and becoming a misrepresentation of their product.

Thats just a matter of the license agreement. Blizzard would disallow resellers an own development. They would have to use both blizzards server and client software.

If a reseller would start to create an own derivate, it actually would be piracy again.

[termgp20]

I find it pretty funny that Everquest has had like 6 or 7 classic servers. The current ones have a higher population than any of the normal servers. They arent really true classic servers though because after like 4 or 5 months the next expansion is unlocked to allow people to progress further. How can their tiny dev team do something Blizzard cant? The fact is Blizzard could easily do it, they just dont want to.

[Eapoe]

Let's just put this to bed.



This isn't about being "open minded", but I get why that's your avenue of approach. It's about considering what a pristine realm would be designed to achieve, and whether or not it manages to do the things a legacy realm would do. Even a cursory consideration would have you conclude that it wouldn't, to the extent where even Brack admits that they don't know if it's something players want.

They know players want legacy servers.

They don't know if players want legacy servers.

As a result, we can logically conclude that the two do not achieve the same thing; not even the designers believe it.



I disagree. Players grouped up in vanilla because it was worthwhile to do dungeons thanks to their rewards, and the difference they made to your levelling. When those rewards play next to no part in making your levelling easier, and you have to take time out of questing in order to put together a group, it's pretty obvious what players will do - they'll avoid it.



Levelling took time because the game was harder. You couldn't pull a pack of mobs, melt them, and then move on to the next pack. You also couldn't completely ignore your quest text, save for anything more convoluted that what's shown on your map. Let's not forget that there were far fewer quests during vanilla, and the distances you often had to travel to complete more around your level was much less negligible (I remember the constant shift from the Barrens to Hillsbrad "fondly").

None of this is why levelling would take time on a pristine realm. It'd take time because there are five expansions to plough through, with little to no breaking up because getting a group would be far harder and for far less point.



People won't bother with dungeons at all. I'm willing to put a bet on it with you, right now, that they'll simply be avoided because they're inefficient. And people won't be more social, because heirlooms don't make the game easy; it's easy, regardless. Other players are a nuisance when you're questing, not a help, and will remain as shunned as they are now.



With respect, I don't think you get where this pristine realm idea comes from. Blizzard are worried about keeping up to date with multiple versions of the game, which means pristine realms would be designed to be exactly as live but with all cross-realming, LFD and experience increasing functionality turned off. That's it.



What a laugh.

Step one: Call someone a "dense stone".
Step two: Complain that they don't communicate properly.
Step three: Demand that several obvious points are spelled out.

Pristine realms are nothing more than an exercise in hand-waving because Blizzard don't want to cave on their legacy server stance, but are perhaps coming round to the idea that they're going to have to. You can paint it in whichever romanticized ideals you like; the concept of a pristine realm does not serve what the legacy players want in any way, shape or form.

The idea is a busted flush. And even more amusing, pristine realms are already live.

A couple of things you as missing. I don't consider the game harder just because the overall pool of my health and mana was so low that I have to stop and eat/drink after a fight with 1 mob because it was tuned that way. There was no real threat while leveling if you take the slow and steady approach, just the time consuming factor of having to replenish your mana because it took all of it to kill 1 mob. The Pristine server idea turns off heirlooms, so you quite literally go back to running dungeons and questing in greens, taking out some of the trivialization of them.
While your other points are quite accurate, some of them are off. I also agree Pristine is a moot point and shouldn't happen, but I also feel that Legacy just isn't in the cards where we are now with retail. Pretty sure it want in this thread but somewhere I stated they should just end WoW after Legion and work on WoW 2, and that if that happens Legacy realms will actually become more viable.

[Deleted]

Pretty sure it want in this thread but somewhere I stated they should just end WoW after Legion and work on WoW 2, and that if that happens Legacy realms will actually become more viable.

That would be really great. But for some reason i dont think blizzard is going to create a new MMORPG anytime soon.

Actually the market is very dangerous, as its saturated with all kinds of WoW clones.

[Eapoe]

Thats just a matter of the license agreement. Blizzard would disallow resellers an own development. They would have to use both blizzards server and client software.

If a reseller would start to create an own derivate, it actually would be piracy again.

This is different from your previous post in which you state that Blizzard wouldn't need to support the development after a 3rd party chooses a version they liked and wanted to run. Maybe I misunderstood, but that sounded like the 3rd party would have rights to maintain and upkeep and change as needed. Also, no matter how airtight, there are always loopholes to be exploited when inviting an outside agency to represent you. Also, let's talk representation. Say, as an example, the 3rd party wants to make more money, or change something, or whatever, and they approach Blizz, to which Blizz does not agree. 3rd party shuts down servers as a protest, Blizz gets the blame because they are the ones who ultimately own the property and picked these guys.
Maybe not something as extreme, but maybe the 3rd party screws something up or doesn't keep up with player expectations, again, blame comes back on Blizzard.
The main point I'm making is hiring an outside agency to represent them isn't something I see a company like Blizzard doing.

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That would be really great. But for some reason i dont think blizzard is going to create a new MMORPG anytime soon.

Actually the market is very dangerous, as its saturated with all kinds of WoW clones.

I kind of agree, but since it's Blizz and would be WoW 2, I think there is enough of a fan base to get it off the ground. The gameplay and design would be what's needed to keep people around after that. The biggest thing though is they could technically base it many timelines down the road and write completely new lore, make new classes, get rid of old classes...basically have completely free reign to rewrite the game how they see fit with minimal backlash. And here's the biggest factor, it completely opens them to Legacy realms for any expansion from Wow 1.

[Deleted]

This is different from your previous post in which you state that Blizzard wouldn't need to support the development after a 3rd party chooses a version they liked and wanted to run. Maybe I misunderstood, but that sounded like the 3rd party would have rights to maintain and upkeep and change as needed.

I am sorry, but i am no native english speaker. Probably its a problem on my side. Yes, i didnt mean they should be able to develop it, but would just chose a version which wont evolve anymore.

Maybe not something as extreme, but maybe the 3rd party screws something up or doesn't keep up with player expectations, again, blame comes back on Blizzard.
The main point I'm making is hiring an outside agency to represent them isn't something I see a company like Blizzard doing.

Well, they already do with netease in china. At the end, they just should give those companies the ability to run legacy servers where blizzard is actually safe they will cooperate.

Yes, theres always a risk. OTOH there is also obviously a small market for that. And product diversification isnt that bad.

[Kalador]

I find it pretty funny that Everquest has had like 6 or 7 classic servers. The current ones have a higher population than any of the normal servers. They arent really true classic servers though because after like 4 or 5 months the next expansion is unlocked to allow people to progress further. How can their tiny dev team do something Blizzard cant? The fact is Blizzard could easily do it, they just dont want to.

The fact is that you have absoultly no idea if it is actually easy to do.... keep telling yourself it would be easy to do so you don't have to acknowledge that blizzard might be telling the true when they say it would be hard.

[Deleted]

The biggest thing though is they could technically base it many timelines down the road and write completely new lore, make new classes, get rid of old classes...basically have completely free reign to rewrite the game how they see fit with minimal backlash. And here's the biggest factor, it completely opens them to Legacy realms for any expansion from Wow 1.

A lot of novelty for the burned out WoW community for sure. Yeah, i would love the idea of WoW II.

[Pann]

Thats just a matter of the license agreement. Blizzard would disallow resellers an own development. They would have to use both blizzards server and client software.

If a reseller would start to create an own derivate, it actually would be piracy again.

Blizzard are never going to license WoW to a 3rd party in a region where they are free to operate (unlike China). If Blizzard are not interested in the profits that a classic server could generate they most certainly will not be interested in the profit of licensing it to a third party.

For argument sake let's say that the market for a classic server is worth $50million per year, Blizzard could tap into this an make $50million less their costs. A third party would need to also cover their own costs, licensing costs and make a profit otherwise it is not worth their while so instead of $50million less costs Blizzard are left with $50million less the 3rd party's costs and profits.

Then there is the risk of reputational damage to what is a multi-billion dollar asset and the risk of allowing a third party access to battlenet.

[Eapoe]

I am sorry, but i am no native english speaker. Probably its a problem on my side. Yes, i didnt mean they should be able to develop it, but would just chose a version which wont evolve anymore.



Well, they already do with netease in china. At the end, they just should give those companies the ability to run legacy servers where blizzard is actually safe they will cooperate.

Yes, theres always a risk. OTOH there is also obviously a small market for that. And product diversification isnt that bad.

No worries, I'm the one who misunderstood

[FobManX]

I really hope they don't introduce vanilla/legacy servers. Keep the past in the past. Its like all these studios making remakes of old classic movies/TV shows.

Instead focus on making the current game better. Innovate, come up with new stuff.

Yeah a lot of people may want legacy, but thats just looking for nostalgia. Its like how we might long over our days in High School and College. Do we actually want to go back or do we want to move on with our lives?

[Darkeon]

I really hope they don't introduce vanilla/legacy servers. Keep the past in the past. Its like all these studios making remakes of old classic movies/TV shows.

Instead focus on making the current game better. Innovate, come up with new stuff.

Yeah a lot of people may want legacy, but thats just looking for nostalgia. Its like how we might long over our days in High School and College. Do we actually want to go back or do we want to move on with our lives?

Do you know they do though?

Hint* It sells. Supply and Demand, my dear FobManX.

[Desparil]

Do you know they do though?

Hint* It sells. Supply and Demand, my dear FobManX.

Blizzard obviously thinks it doesn't sell...thats why there was another no, otherwise we would have legacy servers.

[Darkeon]

Blizzard obviously thinks it doesn't sell...thats why there was another no, otherwise we would have legacy servers.

That's what you got from the statement? I got that Blizzard is taking the easier\more profitable route.

[Deleted]

Blizzard is hiring! Server engineer for Classic Games.
https://twitter.com/Abe_Ramos/status/725389822039187456