Open Letter to Blizzard Entertainment from Mark Kern

[Relapses]

This post right here proves even more how toxic you are. You are trying to generalize us all for 1 person that may of offend you. The fact that you already have a preconceived notion of how someone in this "pro-legacy" group will be as soon as you argue is disgusting. The worst part is I'm just calling you out on it. You have been doing this since you opened your mouth.

...I can't even fathom the level of self-referential narcissism is necessary to have this view point. I don't even have words.

[Thimagryn]

True but my point still stands.

It's a good point, but this isn't an answer that can be reached by using logic. Opinions are subjective, and there are those of us who do not trust in Mark's motives based on his track record.

Logically, I don't know if Trump genuinely cares about the people. I don't need to know if he does to formulate an opinion or voice concerns. His actions and words speak loudly. And same applies to Mark Kern.

[Eliseus]

...I can't even fathom the level of self-referential narcissism is necessary to have this view point. I don't even have words.

Refers to everyone in a "Pro-Legacy" group. Gets called out and now it's narcissism. Okay buddy. If it helps you sleep at night, I won't hold it against you.

[AztechZero]

"I don't think we need to make [Azeroth] great again, [Azeroth] never stopped being great" - Hillary Clinton

Okay she didn't say that, but still.

This "make azeroth great again" is such a bullshit line taken right out of -- Donald trumps? book? Really? That's the best he could come up with.

Come on, not only is it stupid, but the current Azeroth is far greater than the vanilla azeroth ever was. Inb4 the rose tinted glasses start ripping me to shreds, but it's just true. This guy isn't a dev for wow anymore for a reason.

I honestly hope they do make vanilla servers and publicly release the amount of players, so we can see it taper off and die after under a year. It'd be awesome. Just to prove all the people wrong who think it'd be a GIANT success!

There's this thing called subjectivity...

[Deficineiron]

It means more than anyone on mmoc. I don't deny he's doing it for himself, but noone knows for a fact, if he doesn't genuinely care for Legacy servers.

The Ultimately Unknowable Motivation Paradox strikes again!

Of course, you realize that no one here knows, for a fact, if you personally know mark kern or not. You may, and have direct insight into his motivations. Once again, to be clear, no one here knows whether you do for a fact. You could even be him. Did I mention no one here knows, for a fact, that you are not him?

once every single subjective opinion on another person's identity, belief, knowledge, existence, etc is subject to the 'no one knows for a fact' qualifier, lots of fun possibilities open up.

[RickJamesLich]

The Ultimately Unknowable Motivation Paradox strikes again!

Of course, you realize that no one here knows, for a fact, if you personally know mark kern or not. You may, and have direct insight into his motivations. Once again, to be clear, no one here knows whether you do for a fact. You could even be him. Did I mention no one here knows, for a fact, that you are not him?

once every single subjective opinion on another person's identity, belief, knowledge, existence, etc is subject to the 'no one knows for a fact' qualifier, lots of fun possibilities open up.

Nobody knows for a fact of course, but the numbers that we've seen from Nostalrius and what Mark Kern has stated would imply the server would likely be successful. Blizzard's initial goal with WoW was to get a million subscribers and hopefully retain about half, they of course got a lot more than that, but that number would've made them happy. Nostalrius in under a year got 800k subscribers, despite almost no advertisement besides word of mouth for the server. You couldn't discuss it on blizz forums obviously, but we weren't allowed to even discuss it here. Blizzard on the flip side hosting a private server in itself would increase that awareness 10 fold. Of course not everyone would be willing to pay, but judging from the responses we've seen thus far, coupled with the petition with 250,000 signatures, it seems pretty obvious that there is still a big market that is willing to pay. And unlike the retail server, they don't have to keep releasing new content, the legacy servers have enough content in themselves to keep players happy.

[Bapestar]

The Ultimately Unknowable Motivation Paradox strikes again!

Of course, you realize that no one here knows, for a fact, if you personally know mark kern or not. You may, and have direct insight into his motivations. Once again, to be clear, no one here knows whether you do for a fact. You could even be him. Did I mention no one here knows, for a fact, that you are not him?

once every single subjective opinion on another person's identity, belief, knowledge, existence, etc is subject to the 'no one knows for a fact' qualifier, lots of fun possibilities open up.

Point still stands lol. Saying Kern doesn't give a rats ass about Legacy servers is speculation. Honestly the anti Legacy server crowd says, alot of shit and are proved wrong. So excuse me, if I am not going to just believe anything they say. It could have been anyone else in Kern's position, and you guys would still find something to bitch about. Even if the events at Red 5 never transpired.

[Marakesh]

It's a good point, but this isn't an answer that can be reached by using logic. Opinions are subjective, and there are those of us who do not trust in Mark's motives based on his track record.

Logically, I don't know if Trump genuinely cares about the people. I don't need to know if he does to formulate an opinion or voice concerns. His actions and words speak loudly. And same applies to Mark Kern.

Huge difference. We know a lot about Trump because he's been famous since the 80's and actual journalist have covered him. He's written books. He has speeches. Just from what he, himself, has said, a lot of people do not care for him, although there are millions that do. Either way, there's a considerable amount of knowledge available to base an opinion on.

For Kern we have a few anonymous sources on the internet. And a game company that went bust, because you know, that's like really rare, since most game companies make billions and only a small handful fail. Among the few pieces of information we do have is his actions in 2012 while still the CEO at Red 5.

League For Gamers
In 2012, Kern started the League For Gamers in response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act. Kern said that the League For Gamers would stand as an advocacy group for the gaming community. He intended it to rival the Entertainment Software Association which focused more on publisher rights, in light of its support of SOPA. Red 5 Studios' website went offline on the 18th of January to draw attention to the legislation.

[Thimagryn]

I just want to be clear that I have respect for Mark Kern in what he believes and in his abilities, but I don't have trust in him. I don't like how he handles himself regarding the community and social media. For instance, I think the whole Panzer thing was completely avoidable.

This is the representative for the Legacy servers. Our representative. He is in a position of great influence, and I think his outspoken say-it-as-it-is personality has potential to hurt this whole situation. Not saying he's a bad guy, but I simply don't trust him. The rumors at Red5 are not the basis of my mistrust; but they support what I already see from his charismatic and passionate personality. I really don't think his outbursts are excusable simply because he's championing a good cause.

Legacy servers don't need to be headed by a visionary. They need to be lead by someone who can facilitate the needs of the players (classic gameplay) and of Blizzard (financial stability). I see it as a situation that requires a lot of tact and careful planning. Is Mark Kern the right man for the job? Possibly, but I'll remain skeptical until I see some results beyond polls and promises.

[Deleted]

Legacy servers need no representative. And surely no ambassadors. The idea to make some people spokesman for some undefinied minority is as crazy as wanting to invite Nostralgius to Blizzard HQ for cookies and tea.

Blizzard just should be silent and ignore both kern and nost. Thats the only solution to repair the damage done. When the hype is over Blizzard should decide if they still want pristine or legacy realms based on their own ideas and not being forced by a group made out of copyright violaters and PR freeloaders.

[Mosotti]

I looked up your posts because I expected to find exactly what I find. You try to use a moral or principle high ground yet have an attitude that shows a great contempt for others.

I only had to look through a few posts before finding your putrid victim blaming thought process.

Regarding nost, you can think everyone in the world is as hateful selfish and arrogant as you but you're wrong.

I have great contempt for cretins, that's right. Most victims would not be victims if they would use their fucking idiot brains. I did not blame the victim, I was stating a FACT. And it's a FACT that if you're dressing provocatively among a bunch of drunken retards there's a much bigger chance of getting rape. Also if you go to fucking Syria there'sa much bigger chance you'll have your head chopped off. Or if you go into a fucked up neighborhood there's a much bigger chance of being shot by a gang, than staying in your nice little part of town. This is not victim blaming, it's fucking crime prevention. But you please feel free and educate your daughters that's OK to dress like some whores, and attend drinking parties, because THE LAW will protect them, and nothing wrong can happen. We are living in a civilized society after all. Lol.

Nost devs are selfish as fuck (as any other private server devs are actually, they all keep for themselves) and I feel pity for all the suckers that support them. They are also the victims that don't use their idiot brains. They will see official lunacy servers when the sun rises in the west and the rivers flow upstream.

If anyone has any prediction when Blizz will agree with the nostalgia crowd and launch lunacy servers, please share it... I want to mark it in my calendar to come back and make fun of his lack of neurons.

[Deficineiron]

Nobody knows for a fact of course, but the numbers that we've seen from Nostalrius and what Mark Kern has stated would imply the server would likely be successful. Blizzard's initial goal with WoW was to get a million subscribers and hopefully retain about half, they of course got a lot more than that, but that number would've made them happy. Nostalrius in under a year got 800k subscribers, despite almost no advertisement besides word of mouth for the server. You couldn't discuss it on blizz forums obviously, but we weren't allowed to even discuss it here. Blizzard on the flip side hosting a private server in itself would increase that awareness 10 fold. Of course not everyone would be willing to pay, but judging from the responses we've seen thus far, coupled with the petition with 250,000 signatures, it seems pretty obvious that there is still a big market that is willing to pay. And unlike the retail server, they don't have to keep releasing new content, the legacy servers have enough content in themselves to keep players happy.

my suspicion is that blizzard knows an authentic classic server would bring in subscribers far beyond needed for profitability (plus there are all kinds of cross-synergy gamestore gimmicks they could pull) but it is absolutely not the direction they want to go, plus something like this would need to be greenlighted by atvi I assume.

i have suggested elsewhere an idea that blizzard hasn't pushed this because they expected they would 'need' to accessibilize the game, tune it down, etc., and add all the qol stuff to get the modern retail player in it.

[Deleted]

So fucking what? Noone needs to fight for 10 years, to genuinely want or be an advocate for legacy servers.

Thanks for proving my point that he only rides the buzz wave.

- - - Updated - - -

Sue then under what laws? Stop being melodramatic

Stop pretending to be naiv... the moment the nost crew release "their code" blizzard will utterly destroy them under ip laws.

[Relapses]

Thanks for proving my point that he only rides the buzz wave.

- - - Updated - - -

Stop pretending to be naiv... the moment the nost crew release "their code" blizzard will utterly destroy them under ip laws.

If they frame the release of Nost's source as an "accident" then a company (or private entity) who is already running private servers in a copyright sanctuary country picks it up, there'd be little Blizzard could do to stop players from accessing these realms. That's why there was so much backlash within the Nost community when they announced they wouldn't be releasing the source.

[Egregious]

I would happily pay to play on Blizzard licensed Legacy servers...


and I already have 3 active Legion accounts!

[Pann]

If they frame the release of Nost's source as an "accident" then a company (or private entity) who is already running private servers in a copyright sanctuary country picks it up, there'd be little Blizzard could do to stop players from accessing these realms. That's why there was so much backlash within the Nost community when they announced they wouldn't be releasing the source.

It is likely that there will, if there is not already, a contract in place between Blizzard and Nost forbidding the source code being released. If it was to be released and a server set up in a country where copyright laws are not applicable it would be a straight forward case of breach of contract.

[Relapses]

It is likely that there will, if there is not already, a contract in place between Blizzard and Nost forbidding the source code being released. If it was to be released and a server set up in a country where copyright laws are not applicable it would be a straight forward case of breach of contract.

While I agree, it's not yet certain whether such a contract has been signed. Surely if Blizzard offers the guys jobs they may be liable and such a contract would be in place but if the result of the meetings is little more than PR-buzz, I think they may find renewed pressure within the private server community to release their code.

[Deficineiron]

While I agree, it's not yet certain whether such a contract has been signed. Surely if Blizzard offers the guys jobs they may be liable and such a contract would be in place but if the result of the meetings is little more than PR-buzz, I think they may find renewed pressure within the private server community to release their code.

blizzard could well have required such a signature just to get in the door to the alleged meeting that apparently never took place.

private server community has no teeth. fortune 500 co's legal team has big, pointy teeth, like these

[Pann]

While I agree, it's not yet certain whether such a contract has been signed. Surely if Blizzard offers the guys jobs they may be liable and such a contract would be in place but if the result of the meetings is little more than PR-buzz, I think they may find renewed pressure within the private server community to release their code.

To be honest given the choice between some people I've never met being upset with me and a costly legal battle that would almost certainly leave me with no choice but to become bankrupt I would choose upset internet people every day of the week.

[Relapses]

blizzard could well have required such a signature just to get in the door to the alleged meeting that apparently never took place.

Also true (I've even said it before in previous posts), but still speculation. The reason I framed the release of their source as an accident is if they say something along the lines of, "we were transporting the code on a completely insecure thumb drive and this Russian guy mugged us and stole it" (obviously exaggerated intentionally poor example) then they can kind of worm their way out of culpability while the private server community gets exactly what they want.