WoW Private Nostalgia Server Being Shut Down

[Asrien]

This seems of interest to the almighty Ross in the sky, given the similarity between a server allowing us to glimpse at the glory days of a definitive MMO, and the death of a non-MMO game. It's quite depressing to me. I never even played WoW but the idea that people who did, and loved it so much that they tried to curate and sustain the old, classic world are being hindered is pretty horrible. Hopefully Blizzard can be convinced that when it comes to something like this it's not all about the money. From what this article says and shows this server's been more about capturing the original feeling of WoW, and absolutely not about profiteering off of Blizzard's IP. They should at the very least leave it be, if not support it as a celebration of their legacy, and their history.

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/inside-the-server-blizzard-wants-to-shut-down/?utm_content=bufferd9162&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=buffer_pcgamer

[wingdingsbill]

After watching JonTrons rant video on the WoW server being shut down (

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzT8UzO1zGQ), I couldn't help but draw parallels between Ross's views on killing games and Jon's disappointment over the killing of the WoW server. Maybe Ross could get in contact with Jon about his crusade against killing games. It certainly would open his plight up to a larger audience.

[Alyxx Thorne]

One thing I'm curious about is whether the Nostalrius server charged money from people or not. If it did, I could probably understand Bliz' reaction. But so far it just seems like they felt it was stealing players...

[Asrien]

One thing I'm curious about is whether the Nostalrius server charged money from people or not. If it did, I could probably understand Bliz' reaction. But so far it just seems like they felt it was stealing players...

That article stated that the development team behind Nostalrius were operating at a loss, and registration for their server was free. So they certainly weren't in it for commercial gain, they may have been accepting donations for server maintenance though. Either way I don't think they were shut down for money reasons so much as Blizzard's legal team just not liking Blizzard IP being used without them gaining from it. Though I do believe that if they aren't offering an alternative to it that it has a right to be. It's like shutting a museum because you've got work featured in it that you're not making money off.

[Fric]

One thing I'm curious about is whether the Nostalrius server charged money from people or not. If it did, I could probably understand Bliz' reaction. But so far it just seems like they felt it was stealing players...

That article stated that the development team behind Nostalrius were operating at a loss, and registration for their server was free. So they certainly weren't in it for commercial gain, they may have been accepting donations for server maintenance though. Either way I don't think they were shut down for money reasons so much as Blizzard's legal team just not liking Blizzard IP being used without them gaining from it. Though I do believe that if they aren't offering an alternative to it that it has a right to be. It's like shutting a museum because you've got work featured in it that you're not making money off.

What about ad revenue, popularity for other projects etc.? Those are all gains for them.

 

Blizzard has every right to do that. Sure, if blizzard would be shutting down their servers for good, than yeah, I think blizzard should provide it for non-commercial purposes and even than they should take legal action against those who try to monetize their private servers (or take a cut from them).

 

But the game is still going and will be going for lets say another decade at least, so imho they should protect their intellectual property. Take the example of muonline - I don't know how many people actually play the original, but I have a feeling there are more private server players than the original ones. 99% of those servers are monetized money grabs. Don't set a precedent for WOW...

 

Also this goes together with Bliz strict policy of banning botting, gold selling etc.

[Blightmare]

The problem from what I'm hearing is less that they're shutting down the server and more that people feel the game, as it was in 2004, is being killed off and blizzard refuses to let anyone play it the way they wanted to in the past. People have stated that they'd be willing to resub if they could get legacy servers, yet blizzard has even gone to say "you think you want that but you don't want that." which is quite honestly bullshit. I'm sure every month that goes by with that line of thought is a healthy chunk of sub revenue they're losing with that line of thought.

 

Also don't believe them if they say they don't have the code anymore. That's bullshit. A company like blizzard would have multiple backups of code, legacy and current. They're simply using this as an excuse. If they DON'T have the backup code anymore then that's even more respect lost for a company because not backing up everything is a mistake even learning coders know not to make.

[BTGBullseye]

The problem from what I'm hearing is less that they're shutting down the server and more that people feel the game, as it was in 2004, is being killed off and blizzard refuses to let anyone play it the way they wanted to in the past. People have stated that they'd be willing to resub if they could get legacy servers, yet blizzard has even gone to say "you think you want that but you don't want that." which is quite honestly bullshit. I'm sure every month that goes by with that line of thought is a healthy chunk of sub revenue they're losing with that line of thought.

I'm one of those that would resub in a heartbeat if it meant I could have my pre-WotLK Hunter...

 

Also don't believe them if they say they don't have the code anymore. That's bullshit. A company like blizzard would have multiple backups of code, legacy and current. They're simply using this as an excuse. If they DON'T have the backup code anymore then that's even more respect lost for a company because not backing up everything is a mistake even learning coders know not to make.

They have all their original code, (for every game they ever made) and backups of every version of the server versions ever. (I know a guy that works there as a dev) They literally are being puppeted by their legal and marketing departments right now... The devs want a Vanilla server, (and a server for each expansion as well) but it rubs the marketing team wrong to bring back the old for ANY reason.

[Alyxx Thorne]

The marketing at Blizzard are just dicks from what I've seen. Externally the company is not looking good right now.

 

What they should've done is offered a partnership with the server and helped them sustain as well as earning money from them. Would've meant people would have to pay to play on the server but still, it would've been better than outright shutting it down.