Blizzard Responds to the Legacy Server Issue

SBFord

Blizzard Responds to the Legacy Server Issue

J. Allen Brack has taken to the US World of Warcraft forums to give Blizzard's first response to the issue of legacy servers that resulted from the recent legal action taken against a popular "private" server.

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rasmijn

I'd play the heck out of that "Pristine Realm"! Make that shit happen

DKLond

Nostalgia is a powerful force when combined with no subscription.

UnleadedRev

Since Nostalgia can do what Blizzard says they cannot do "without great difficulty"....well uh....DUH!
Freaking buy Nostalgia or pay them or whatever since they obviously can do very easily what Blizzard cannot!
Stupid excuse Blizzard

Kilrain

DKLond said:

Nostalgia is a powerful force when combined with no subscription.

People keep saying stuff like this, rose colored glasses and such. But just look at the success behind EQs classic servers (mostly classic). I mean, they're the only ones smart enough to cash in on the idea, and yes it requires a subscription.

There are/were more than one WoW private servers, but which ones were more popular? Classic. Not because they were free.

DKLond

Kilrain said:

DKLond said:

Nostalgia is a powerful force when combined with no subscription.

People keep saying stuff like this, rose colored glasses and such. But just look at the success behind EQs classic servers (mostly classic). I mean, they're the only ones smart enough to cash in on the idea, and yes it requires a subscription.

There are/were more than one WoW private servers, but which ones were more popular? Classic. Not because they were free.

I honestly have no idea how many people are playing EQ classic, so I'm interested in numbers.

What kind of success are we talking about?

Gdemami

UnleadedRev said:
Freaking buy Nostalgia or pay them or whatever since they obviously can do very easily what Blizzard cannot!

Erm, so Blizzard should pay for code that was stolen from them and even pay the thieves themselves...?


 Obviously...

Jakobmiller

Gdemami said:

UnleadedRev said:
Freaking buy Nostalgia or pay them or whatever since they obviously can do very easily what Blizzard cannot!

Erm, so Blizzard should pay for code that was stolen from them and even pay the thieves themselves...?


 Obviously...

Recruit them since obviously Blizzard lacks talent these days

DKLond

I don't think a lack of talent is their problem, I think it's more like drive. They've grown way too complacent after WoW.

Hard to blame them, though.

SBFord

Jakobmiller said:

Gdemami said:

UnleadedRev said:

Freaking buy Nostalgia or pay them or whatever since they obviously can do very easily what Blizzard cannot!

Erm, so Blizzard should pay for code that was stolen from them and even pay the thieves themselves...?
 Obviously...

Recruit them since obviously Blizzard lacks talent these days

That's unfair and petty.

They have the talent but not the inclination to do it. As the letter clearly states, they are speaking with these people and perhaps something will come of it -- maybe licensed servers and whatnot. The talent and current employees of Blizzard are working on Legion and other live version issues.

If you don't like the game, fine, but be respectful of the work and the workers.

Gdemami

Jakobmiller said:
Recruit them since obviously Blizzard lacks talent these days

Do they? I hear Heartsone is doing fine and Overwatch is shaping nicely...

Sirmatthias

I was totally right about protecting there brand. it was getting watered down and in the current justice system you can lose your brand if it happens to often.

Pepeq

It's the same rhetoric they've been spewing for years.  Turning off Recruit-A-Friend (i.e. "pristine servers") doesn't bring back all the content that was lost when they modified the old world over the years.  It's not the speed at which a player can level as much as the fact that the content itself is totally different.  They can't seem to get that through their thick skulls.


And the 'protect their IP' line is a load of crap.  They could have shut down Nostralius immediately but they chose... rather interestingly... to do it now when their Warcraft movie is due to come out.  They knew this would generate negative PR, but you have to admit, there has been more talk about WoW since this closure than there has been for quite some time.  People just don't realize there is a Warcraft movie (except the diehard WoW fans)... but now it's getting some exposure all because of this debate.


Just another "screw the players" post on the official forums.  Nothing has changed.

Tamanous

DMKano said:

"Tremendous operational challenges."

Straight from the horses mouth.


Players are completely unaware of the ops side of running a MMO like WoW - most people think well its just a bunch of servers how hard can it be? I mean you can just rent them from amazon and be done with it.... /facepalm

Understanding how hard it is to run servers is meaningless to the average player ... Vanilla wow already exists, therefore it can be done.

Tamanous

Sirmatthias said:

I was totally right about protecting there brand. it was getting watered down and in the current justice system you can lose your brand if it happens to often.

Legal options vary from country to country. Blizzard can work out a legal way for emulators to exist under what ever restrictions they want and continue to go after illegal ones. Vanilla servers will always exist ... somewhere.

Anything that earns the legal write to slap "Blizzard Authorized" will dominate in player base. Players merely need a safe umbrella to play under and Blizzard retains more control than they currently have.

I see no easier way for Blizzard to gain more than they lose by providing some sort of official outlet to players over ignoring them.

I should point out I only defend the few solid 'Blizz-like' servers that try to emulate how retail ran. There are many that are complete crap and these are ones both players and Blizzard need protection from.

Purutzil

DMKano said:

"Tremendous operational challenges."

Straight from the horses mouth.


Players are completely unaware of the ops side of running a MMO like WoW - most people think well its just a bunch of servers how hard can it be? I mean you can just rent them from amazon and be done with it.... /facepalm

Except Nostalrius was running for about $1,000 a month for the entire server which had 150,000 active accounts (which I'd bet it blows away the current active population on even the largest servers on wow). Given people want just the bare bones to run it, no updates just general running of it, its pennies in comparison to blizzards cash flow, and with the interest it can likely bring a large number of resubs who refuse to play WoD just to play classic.  

I'm calling completely BS on that point of "Tremendous Operational Challenges". Unless they ditched the code completely for some reason (which would be terrible business practice on their part) they would have very little to do on their end. Honestly I think its more out of fear that classic is a lot more popular then WoD and they might hold the fear that legion could be very much the same having waning interest because they lack of the confidence they can create a compelling product anymore.

Ghavrigg

This is pretty much what my thoughts on the matter revolved around. More or less the response I expected. They're at least throwing a bone to the people rallying for a legacy server with thoughts on having servers without group finder and level boosts, etc., and how they're talking with the Nostalrius people about whatever. 

Doubt I'll be putting much time into any alternate realm types, though.

Kayo83

Well that should be interesting. Id be greatly interested in trying one of those out for a change. Hell I may even buy Legion and try it out for a few months. I dont think theyll be able to change the overall ease of the game though or the loot piñata reward system they got.... or the homogenization... or the hub to hub grind... or the, yeah, ill skip on Legion at first and see how itd change the previous content first.

The rest was bull. The private server was going for how long now? Why not write your angry lawyer intimidation letter when it started? They did it because WoW has been bleeding out for years now and nothing theyve done has been able to stop it. Looks to me like theyre just desperate for subs so they closed the restaurant across the street so everyone would come back to theirs.

And the whole difficulty of implementing a private server is a damned lie as well. Its not that hard to load up a server with older software and plug it into the network. So some group of people with too much time (and maybe money) can do it but one of the biggest juggernauts in gaming cant? It just doesnt fly with the suits up top and they know it. If it doesnt work with the cash shop, and all the other external revenue generating dung theyve flung at this game since, theyre not interested.

Cyrael

To add my $0.02, I personally wouldn't be interested in the pristine realm he mentions. I want to play the WoW that didn't have flying mounts, that didn't have phasing, and that had actual server communities. If you just turn off XP boosts, that's not going to have the same effect.

freetires

cant they just hire Nostalrius people? or merge their current vanilla server to WoW server ?? i mean BLizz right now is just the lazyest thing ever... turning off everything on WOD wont change anything just turn it even worst. do we need to yell in their ears VANILLA SERVER. man..........

danwest58

DMKano said:

"Tremendous operational challenges."

Straight from the horses mouth.


Players are completely unaware of the ops side of running a MMO like WoW - most people think well its just a bunch of servers how hard can it be? I mean you can just rent them from amazon and be done with it.... /facepalm

Kano,

I am a Sr. Systems Engineer. From an Operational standpoint its not hard to build and maintain these servers, the Operational problem comes from building the team. They would need someone like Mark Kern who has experience and can come in from the outside to manage these servers. To pull resources from another team is the problem. You really need to build another team to manage these servers.

danwest58

SBFord said:

Jakobmiller said:

Gdemami said:

UnleadedRev said:

Freaking buy Nostalgia or pay them or whatever since they obviously can do very easily what Blizzard cannot!

Erm, so Blizzard should pay for code that was stolen from them and even pay the thieves themselves...?

 Obviously...

Recruit them since obviously Blizzard lacks talent these days

That's unfair and petty.

They have the talent but not the inclination to do it. As the letter clearly states, they are speaking with these people and perhaps something will come of it -- maybe licensed servers and whatnot. The talent and current employees of Blizzard are working on Legion and other live version issues.

If you don't like the game, fine, but be respectful of the work and the workers.

If Blizzard is speaking to the developers of Nos Blizzard could hire them and make these developers part of the team that will manage these servers. Think of it as if Blizzard bought SWTOR, Blizzard would bring the team that managed SWTOR on board as Blizzard employees and this team would manage SWTOR.

SBFord

danwest58 said:

Kano,

I am a Sr. Systems Engineer. From an Operational standpoint its not hard to build and maintain these servers, the Operational problem comes from building the team. They would need someone like Mark Kern who has experience and can come in from the outside to manage these servers. To pull resources from another team is the problem. You really need to build another team to manage these servers.

What I fail to understand is why so many refuse to take the word of the people inside the company at face value. For Pete's sake. Sometimes things are exactly what they are said to be rather than the grand conspiracy theory that some want the world to believe.

As for hiring the Nost team, why on earth would they? It's like rewarding the guy who robbed you with a job at your Fortune 500 company.

Entris38

danwest58 said:

SBFord said:

Jakobmiller said:

Gdemami said:

UnleadedRev said:

Freaking buy Nostalgia or pay them or whatever since they obviously can do very easily what Blizzard cannot!

Erm, so Blizzard should pay for code that was stolen from them and even pay the thieves themselves...?

 Obviously...

Recruit them since obviously Blizzard lacks talent these days

That's unfair and petty.

They have the talent but not the inclination to do it. As the letter clearly states, they are speaking with these people and perhaps something will come of it -- maybe licensed servers and whatnot. The talent and current employees of Blizzard are working on Legion and other live version issues.

If you don't like the game, fine, but be respectful of the work and the workers.

If Blizzard is speaking to the developers of Nos Blizzard could hire them and make these developers part of the team that will manage these servers. Think of it as if Blizzard bought SWTOR, Blizzard would bring the team that managed SWTOR on board as Blizzard employees and this team would manage SWTOR.

I agree, award criminals.
SMH, I don't quite understand this line of thinking! Hire a team, but to reward someone that stole from you?

Deltois

Governments hire hackers to fight hackers all the time.

Entris38

Deltois said:

Governments hire hackers to fight hackers all the time.

Same, yet different. Yet, I do see your point.
I'm sure the government hires the geniuses. There may be a genius in this group, as for now, they are simply people that stole property.