So Blizzard doesn't have the resources for Legacy Servers...

[Kyanion]

There is no way to know or prove that ahead of time. We do know there are hundreds of thousands of players that did play on an unofficial server. Those are all potential market, as are an unknown number of more people that never played on private servers but would play on an officially licensed one (like me). We cannot know how many would pay for it (Blizzard itself originally thought WoW would reach maybe 100k players), or how long they would stay. But we do know there is a potential market in the order of hundreds of thousands to a million customers, so why not try it since it doesn't cost anything?

Right which means there is an element of risk involved and maybe Blizzard does not think the risk is worth it. So guess what? No Legacy realms. And it DOES cost something, but as long as you continue to believe Blizz will magically hire these Nost idiots I have nothing further to say as you are just wasting my time.

[Deleted]

Well thank god you don't run Blizzard so we don't have to worry about Blizzard doing something as stupid as bringing on these Nost idiots to run an emulated hack job or as I call it Vanilla-Lite.

You still seem very angry for some reason. Nobody would be forcing you to play on "an emulated hack job" run by "these Nost idiots", it would simply be an option to those of us that would like to do that.

They can ignore whatever the fuck they want because it is their property and they can try and shut down any and all Private Servers they want. Remember, these are people that aren't even paying to play Blizzard products, they are playing for free.

And every time they do that, they piss of actual or potential customers, hurting their brand in the process. Remember that these are people that might very well be paying for Blizzard's retail games too, or at the very least might be potential customers in the future.

I can't think of much worse than allowing those Nost fools to have any official job with Blizzard. These people had no problems giving out their code to another PS after they didn't get their way when Blizzcon happened.

They would not have an official job with Blizzard. They would be licensees and a separate legal entity. And if Blizzard doesn't trust them, they could license to someone else willing to do the job.

[Kyanion]

While I won't buy another Starcraft - remastered or not - I surely would not pay for Classic servers, either. But besides that, a graphics update for an existing game without changing anything else is pretty much nothing compared to the effort for recreating Classic WoW, especially if they would want to recreate all patches one after another. This is not just the sugarcoating of graphics, it's also a huge amount of code.

That and we know what you'll be getting with Starcraft, that is set in stone. A recreation of a 10-12 year old version of Vanilla WoW? Which version? What changes should be allowed to happen that took place in Vanilla. What about balancing? Bug Fixes? Class Balance? So many questions people would ask or demand for if it ever happened. Big ass can of worms just would get opened up and a nightmare would ensue. I doubt that is worth the headache even if it would net them some profit in the short term.

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And every time they do that, they piss of actual or potential customers, hurting their brand in the process. Remember that these are people that might very well be paying for Blizzard's retail games too, or at the very least might be potential customers in the future.

Again you can't piss off customers you don't have. There are other 'potential customers' out there without relying on people sucking on the veins of a FREE private server. And personally? I'd rather those people stay gone.

[Deleted]

Being an official server sanctioned by Blizzard is the main selling point. I am not sure how many people would play Nost if that main selling point is suddenly hidden. How many players did Nost have? 100k / month? That's when there was no sub fee, right? How many of them will remain when there is a sub fee - 10k?

It can be made very clear that it is not Blizzard technology, while being officially licensed. We cannot know in advance how many would pay to play on such a server. Nost had 100k/month, while being illegal and hacky to install (and not running on Macs) etc. etc. How many would play on an officially licensed one - 1M? How many would pay? We don't know, but we do know there is significant demand for legacy servers. And when there is demand, it usually makes sense to sell supply.

[Kyanion]

They would not have an official job with Blizzard. They would be licensees and a separate legal entity. And if Blizzard doesn't trust them, they could license to someone else willing to do the job.

K. Just going to toss you on ignore since you persist in this ignorance. Blizzard does not need the services of some people running an emulator. If they wanted Legacy to happen they could make it happen on their own power with their own control. Since it hasn't happened yet that might mean they are not interested in doing it. Good day.

[Deleted]

They have to. If they ignore the demand for legacy server and keep closing private servers down, it is a risk to their brand. If they license a legacy server and the licensee screws up badly, it's a risk to their brand. It's a question of which risk they would rather take. Usually it's easier and safer to just say "no", especially in big companies, even though it might result in a worse outcome. Saying "yes" is more risky, but can lead to big payoffs.

I think it should be possible. People are not that stupid and this is not rocket science. Also, in an official deal Blizzard would also get to define exactly how Nost could advertise the service.

Sorry, but launching a sub-standard service is much more a risk to the brand than letting some shady 3rd party groups operate an emulated "Vanilla WoW". And the latter is also damage to the legal property, so they have the obligation to shut down at least the major players in this field to keep their property rights.

I would rather want them to invest more time and resources into retail wow than recreating a thing of the past.

[Deleted]

Again you can't piss off customers you don't have. There are other 'potential customers' out there without relying on people sucking on the veins of a FREE private server. And personally? I'd rather those people stay gone.

It's safe to say that people that would go through the trouble of playing WoW on a private server are probably above average Blizzard fans. It's also safe to say that above average Blizzard fans probably play and pay for Blizzard's retail games. So many of them are in fact current Blizzard customers.

[ls-]

It's safe to say that people that would go through the trouble of playing WoW on a private server are probably above average Blizzard fans. It's also safe to say that above average Blizzard fans probably play and pay for Blizzard's retail games. So many of them are in fact current Blizzard customers.

People go through any trouble to play anything for free, they also tend to put up w/ a lot of issues that come w/ it.

Vanilla servers existed even when Vanilla WoW was current, and they were relatively popular.

[Kyanion]

Sorry, but launching a sub-standard service is much more a risk to the brand than letting some shady 3rd party groups operate an emulated "Vanilla WoW". And the latter is also damage to the legal property, so they have the obligation to shut down at least the major players in this field to keep their property rights.

I would rather want them to invest more time and resources into retail wow than recreating a thing of the past.

Same here, keep focusing on the current game and giving us content patches than trying to bring back people to play a 12 year old version of the game that might be a dumpster fire after people try it and leave. And it cracks me up people thinking it would be totally okay for an emulated Vanilla-Lite to be approved by Blizzard.

[Vorkreist]

Being an official server sanctioned by Blizzard is the main selling point. I am not sure how many people would play Nost if that main selling point is suddenly hidden. How many players did Nost have? 100k / month? That's when there was no sub fee, right? How many of them will remain when there is a sub fee - 10k?

By your stupid reasoning nobody should be playing retail either since it has a sub.
If you have any remote knowledge of both retail and private server communities its pretty fucking obvious most people interested in legacy would gladly pay a sub for official servers.
Another idea that might be hard to break through the numbskulled legacyphobes. The majority of private server players have played retail at some point or are still subbed.

[Kyanion]

By your stupid reasoning nobody should be playing retail either since it has a sub.
If you have any remote knowledge of both retail and private server communities its pretty fucking obvious most people interested in legacy would gladly pay a sub for official servers.
Another idea that might be hard to break through the numbskulled legacyphobes. The majority of private server players have played retail at some point or are still subbed.

Oh so you know that 'most people' that play on PS for free would gladly shell out money each month for official realms? Really? For how long? All these people would just be willing to give up on characters they've invested in on a private server for FREE and suddenly pay to start over? Sure some might, but you don't know if everyone would or even if these private servers would just close their doors if Blizz gives them what they want.

Quit acting like you've done some deep diving analysis of what it would take to make all of this happen and assume Blizzard are idiots for not creating this money making machine that is Legacy Realms. If they thought it was worth it they'd have them out already or would have announced them. Guess what? They aren't here. Get. over. it.

[Deleted]

That and we know what you'll be getting with Starcraft, that is set in stone. A recreation of a 10-12 year old version of Vanilla WoW? Which version? What changes should be allowed to happen that took place in Vanilla. What about balancing? Bug Fixes? Class Balance? So many questions people would ask or demand for if it ever happened. Big ass can of worms just would get opened up and a nightmare would ensue. I doubt that is worth the headache even if it would net them some profit in the short term.

Yes - I know I had fun with Starcraft and Broodwar, but I just don't have the time or motivation to replay the game. And I also don't have time and motivation to replay Classic WoW, especially not reliving all patches one after another. Classic WoW did not had account-wide mounts, so I would not be able to add the missing mounts to my collection on that way - and this would be the only motivation for me to play a Classic version. I have spent one year in Classic, dabbled in raiding to some extent, had 2 classes at max level, and I am very clear about the fact that if I would play Classic now, I would leave after some hours because I am bored or disappointed.

[Granador]

GTFO with your Vanilla SHIT , go plate private vanilla servers .

[Deleted]

People go through any trouble to play anything for free, they also tend to put up w/ a lot of issues that come w/ it.

People have to play it for free because there is no paid alternative. There are people, like me, who would not play on an unofficial server, but would pay to play on an officially licensed one. It's the same like how Steam converted many pirates to actually pay for games.

[rda]

It can be made very clear that it is not Blizzard technology, while being officially licensed.

This doesn't help.

OK, you say clearly that these vanilla servers are Blizzard WoW, but not Blizzard technology. OK. A customer comes to these servers. The service is bad. The customer is put off by the service. Then Blizzard issue a new game - Blizzard Super Blablabla. The customer who was put off by the service on the vanilla servers sees the new game - and even if he remembers the bit about vanilla servers being Blizzard WoW, but not Blizzard technology, he wonders whether or not this Blizzard Super Blablabla also Blizzard's IP but not Blizzard technology?? Then he holds off on the purchase, and bam, the end, the damage is done.

Really, there is no getting around the fact that the service is bad and so associating with it is bad for business. You can't escape being associated.

[Kyanion]

Yes - I know I had fun with Starcraft and Broodwar, but I just don't have the time or motivation to replay the game. And I also don't have time and motivation to replay Classic WoW, especially not reliving all patches one after another. Classic WoW did not had account-wide mounts, so I would not be able to add the missing mounts to my collection on that way - and this would be the only motivation for me to play a Classic version. I have spent one year in Classic, dabbled in raiding to some extent, had 2 classes at max level, and I am very clear about the fact that if I would play Classic now, I would leave after some hours because I am bored or disappointed.

Yeah I enjoyed my time with Starcraft when it was current but I doubt I'd play it. I mean I'll buy it if it offers some perk in other games...mainly because I have hundreds of dollars of Bnet balance just rotting as it is. But I don't have any motivation to play classic WoW if it was a thing either. In fact it would likely taint my feelings of Vanilla when I played it 12 years ago and the times I had in it. Vanilla was great for its time but the game would pose zero challenge now compared to doing heroic/mythic dungeons/raiding and would just be a snooze fest to level again.

[ls-]

People have to play it for free because there is no paid alternative. There are people, like me, who would not play on an unofficial server, but would pay to play on an officially licensed one. It's the same like how Steam converted many pirates to actually pay for games.

Many people preferred to play it for free even when it's available.

P.S. That's quite funny how you avoided my 2nd sentence in that post

[Charge me Doctor]

Oh so you know that 'most people' that play on PS for free would gladly shell out money each month for official realms? .

They would also have to pay 60$ for a game on release.

Seriously, people here advocating for blizzard to "just make" legacy servers are same people who say "just stop being poor" to poor.

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It's safe to say that people that would go through the trouble of playing WoW on a private server are probably above average Blizzard fans.

No, they are not. I once went to a private server and had to bleach my eyes after all these "i'm so edgy i play illegal server", "blizzard are cucks lololol", etc.

[rda]

By your stupid reasoning nobody should be playing retail either since it has a sub.
If you have any remote knowledge of both retail and private server communities its pretty fucking obvious most people interested in legacy would gladly pay a sub for official servers.
Another idea that might be hard to break through the numbskulled legacyphobes. The majority of private server players have played retail at some point or are still subbed.

How so? I am saying that the number of people interested in retail is significantly larger than the number of people interested in vanilla. The number of people interested in retail is big enough that even though there is a sub involved, the final number is 5-6 million players. If retail was free, it would have been played by many more people. Vanilla servers - at the level of services provided by pirate servers (bad) and without official Blizzard backing - were scoring some 100k players / month. If there was a sub fee, that number would have been much lower. What's the issue?

[Deleted]

OK, you say clearly that these vanilla servers are Blizzard WoW, but not Blizzard technology. OK. A customer comes to these servers. The service is bad. The customer is put off by the service. Then Blizzard issue a new game - Blizzard Super Blablabla. The customer who was put off by the service on the vanilla servers sees the new game - and even if he remembers the bit about vanilla servers being Blizzard WoW, but not Blizzard technology, he wonders whether or not this Blizzard Super Blablabla also Blizzard's IP but not Blizzard technology?? Then he holds off on the purchase, and bam, the end, the damage is done.

I guess I have more faith in the legacy players' intelligence than you. The way I would do it, is to sell this as an additional service to a normal WoW subscription: "$5-10/month license to play on community created and run WoW servers. WARNING: These servers are developed and run by the community, and Blizzard takes no responsibility for the service provided by them." Then have in-game menu for joining Nost (and maybe others in the future) that further makes it clear via visual cues and explicit notifications that these are not Blizzard servers. People play games like Minecraft on community run servers that break down and disappear without yelling at Mojang/Microsoft, so they are capable of understanding this distinction.