All due respect for your answer. Truth be told those are all fragmented separate stories and no one came into my house and told me my copies were useless. I still have access to every other thing I've paid for in my life.. books, VHS, DVD, and every system I've owned since the Atari 2600. Recently gaming companies have realized the importance of backwards compatibility. Blizz is not immune and their choices are catching up with them.
Happily playing Vanilla and BC WoW, again, since September 2016.
As much as I would love to play on a vanilla server, I know in my hearts of hearts this is not going to happen. I am not one to play on private servers. What really should be the issue is that the drive forward would be to try and rekindle that which made Vanilla great and adopt that going forward.
For me, it was community I had to work and talk with other players and not just treat them as interactive NPC's that help me do crap. It's one of the reasons I really favour Final Fantasy 14, I have a lot to do in that game and work with others in FC and Linkshells to achieve those common goals.
Interacting with people in MMO's is how real memories are made, its why there is Nostalgia in place in the first place.
<snip> Personally, I always assumed they'd make some sort of instanced access to the old world - the way it was pre-Cata - available via the Caverns of Time. I was genuinely shocked when that never happened.
If they made a server with a special sub rate that we could join that was forever locked in the state of WoW pre-TBC I would be interested.
That would be another way of doing it as well. Can't see any special sub though.
Past players left for a reason however - a simple average of c.9M players a year. Which suggests that things were never that rosy!
Wasn't there increasing subs until after WOTLK?
They fell off after Cata which was released in 2010. Check out the graph below.
Vanilla, 2004 The Burning Crusade, Jan 2007 Wrath of the Lich King, Nov 2008 Cataclysm, Dec 2010 Mists of Pandaria, September 2012 Warlords of Draenor, November 2014
Notice the boost near the end. That's the part where 3+ million players returned for Warlords of Draenor (including me) ... then left not long after when they all realized how much it sucked (also me).
Thing is, they are so damn good at world design and the leveling game and then go fuck it all up. They have great stories and lore but prey you want to do a dungeon and then totally screw yourself for following any kind of story.
So much cry and concern to level fast to get to Endgame, that they have to fuck up a whole world instead of just giving the people who want to rush and hate to level a "Fast Forward" and "Skip" to "Endgame" button. You would think that would have been a lot easier, simpler and more popular than dumbing down and trivializing the world and all the content.
I just don't get it. Seems like common sense to me.
"If Blizzard’s findings indicated that enough money would be made to offset the cost of bringing classic realms online with all the attendant financial commitment that would be required, they would do so. "
To reinforce statements from folks like blueturtle I want to highlight that this statement is not entirely accurate. We're not talking about an indie developer that gets by on profit margins, this is a large company with measurable success. The opportunity cost of devoting resources to a vanilla server project would dwarf the cost of maintaining it.
IF the suits thought the profits would be comparable to that of their current developments THEN you might see the idea get the light of day. Unfortunately 15,000 subs is not remotely close to this.
Where do you get 15,000 subs? 150,000 active players on 1 private server there are also a few dozen private servers. Add to that people like myself, my wife and my friends who all would pay to play on a TBC server AND none of us play on a private server.
You are looking somewhere in the neighborhood of 150K to 500K subs easy and yes they would make money on it. These are subs that rival many other MMOs out there.
Meanwhile more recent projects like Hearthstone are drawing hundreds of thousands concurrent users with 10's of millions total users. What do you think Overwatch will pull in? It's all about the context. Business 101 will teach you that for big business you must consider opportunity cost.
Quite frankly, the opportunity cost for a company like Blizzard far surpasses the most optimistic napkin math the fans have been throwing around for vanilla servers.
I completely respect Blizzard's decision to protect its IP and revenue streams. If WoW were a dead IP, I would absolutely support player efforts to bring back the RTS games or their favorite version of WoW, but it's not.
On the other hand, I think there's more to be said for having the attention and good will of players than shows up on any given income statement. Steam and GOG also show that players will happily pay to relive their old gaming experiences (or to have ones they never had the chance to experience). It's not just nostalgia. There is a market for enjoyable gaming experiences no matter how technologically outdated they are.
As I suggested in the previous article on this topic, while it's probably not currently feasible, what I'd like to see are legacy servers for each expansion that allow players to start new characters in whatever expac they choose and either keep the character at the expac's cap to enjoy its endgame or migrate to a future expac (but not back) and continue from there.
Blizzard is a company living off the the talent and reputation of people who aren't even with the company anymore. At this point they're little more than a shovelware vendor for mediocre games and content that they stole the ideas for from more creative companies. Ironic considering how protective they are of their own license.
It's amusing to me that players either seem to complain about waiting for new content or that they want to get rid of all the new content and go back to the beginning.
How long could the hardcores play on a vanilla server before getting bored? I don't see the long term payoff. It's a theme park and it needs new content.
It's amusing to me that players either seem to complain about waiting for new content or that they want to get rid of all the new content and go back to the beginning.
How long could the hardcores play on a vanilla server before getting bored? I don't see the long term payoff. It's a theme park and it needs new content.
That's the way I see it as well, The content is extremely finite, once people have repeated it, what then? It's not like it's a game designed around building communities or ownership (which an SWG emu makes a lot more sense to me).
it just doesn't seem like an undertaking that would have any longterm payoff or benefit for either side.. There'd be no long term appeal in it for anyone, outside of the minority that is content with running the same raid over and over again ad nauseam., as the only thing really keeping the majority of people going in such games, is the promise of what's to come in the form of content updates.
That's why it just seems like people want it for the sake of nostalgia alone.
We've all been there a million times with old games... load it up, interact and reminisce a bit, be done with it again like you were long ago; as there was nothing coming you were interested in and you've already done what's there, in some cases, multiple times..(alts).
At the most you give it a new play-through if it's something highly engaging like KOTOR or Morrowind. IS WOW really that game?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
they wont give players a vanilla server now , why would they? , they are interested in selling you this new expansion , and the mounts and pets on the Store ....things that u wont be able to buy if u are playing in vanilla .....
plus we all know how this thing work....plenty of ppl around the 1 month , as soon as ppl remove the rose tintered glasses....ppl will quit.
I really wonder why publsihers dont see this as a revenue source. Simply keep "classic vanilla" servers in house, allow character transfer, and let people play on and pay for what they deem to be the better product.
150,000 active accounts 15$ USD / month = 2,25 million USD lost (assuming a lot naturally)
DAoC - 00-06 - And every now and then WoW - Online since launch - and now back again. EVE - Online since 07 - and still on, and on, and on.. WHO - Online 08-10 LOTR-O - Online 06-08 Also played : Asherons Call, EverQuest, EQ2, Dungeons & Dragons, Cabal, Dark & Light, GW, GW2, LA2, Ryzom, Shaiya, SWG, Allods, Forsaken World, ArcheAge, Secret World, Darkfall, Rift, ESO, Tera.
It's amusing to me that players either seem to complain about waiting for new content or that they want to get rid of all the new content and go back to the beginning.
How long could the hardcores play on a vanilla server before getting bored? I don't see the long term payoff. It's a theme park and it needs new content.
That's the way I see it as well, The content is extremely finite, once people have repeated it, what then? It's not like it's a game designed around building communities or ownership (which an SWG emu makes a lot more sense to me).
it just doesn't seem like an undertaking that would have any longterm payoff or benefit for either side.. There'd be no long term appeal in it for anyone, outside of the minority that is content with running the same raid over and over again ad nauseam., as the only thing really keeping the majority of people going in such games, is the promise of what's to come in the form of content updates.
That's why it just seems like people want it for the sake of nostalgia alone.
We've all been there a million times with old games... load it up, interact and reminisce a bit, be done with it again like you were long ago; as there was nothing coming you were interested in and you've already done what's there, in some cases, multiple times..(alts).
At the most you give it a new play-through if it's something highly engaging like KOTOR or Morrowind. IS WOW really that game?
The content in classic wow takes longer to complete than any of the last couple of expansions. For me it would probably keep me busier than Legion (which I will also play).
The best thing Blizzard could do is open a classic realm and see how it goes. If it stays popular then win win for Blizzard and players, if it dwindles after a time and becomes a ghost town they can say they at least tried.
Quite frankly, the opportunity cost for a company like Blizzard far surpasses the most optimistic napkin math the fans have been throwing around for vanilla servers.
The italicized part made me laugh unreasonably hard. That's a GREAT line in any discussion of finances. Gonna use that on my ex next time there's another kerfuffle about money.
It's amusing to me that players either seem to complain about waiting for new content or that they want to get rid of all the new content and go back to the beginning.
How long could the hardcores play on a vanilla server before getting bored? I don't see the long term payoff. It's a theme park and it needs new content.
We've all been there a million times with old games... load it up, interact and reminisce a bit, be done with it again like you were long ago; as there was nothing coming you were interested in and you've already done what's there, in some cases, multiple times..(alts).
The problem with classic realms, it seems to me, is that first it will be a vanilla server with 1/2 of those folks wanting it "pure" and "undiluted" as it was in 2004 -- but then there would be clamoring for bug fixes, then patches. The other 1/2 would want quality of life improvements for UI and such. Then the content would get stale because, you know, it's not going to actually expand the story, just the same old same old ad nauseum.
Then would be the call for Burning Crusade servers with free transfers -- as if Blizzard has ever given realm transfers for free -- and rinse / repeat with the purists facing off against the ones with QoL improvements, further splitting the player base.
Then the Lich King proponents would want their time in the sun.
Opening vanilla realms is like a gateway drug -- it spirals out of control pretty fast.
Long answer. Why would they? There really is no proof that a legacy server or two would make money for them. I know many people will hold up the (illegal) private servers as examples that it would but that is not a good measure. Those are free. It costs nothing but bandwidth. If Blizzard took the time and labor hours to recreate the vanilla experience there may not be enough people who would actually pay to play them to make a good ROI for the company.
Even if there was an initial rush what would be the long term play time of each player be? I believe Blizzard has had this conversation more than once over the years and decided their best use of team resources is to use them on moving the game forward not back. The WOW development team is not as large as it once was. Blizzard has other games that require labor hours as well. As a company you have to allocate those hours in the best way possible for the forward growth of your entire business, not just become myopic and focus on one game. A game that has seen it's best days behind it.
The market has changed. The genre has changed. The player base has changed. Of those playing on the Vanilla server how many would actually pay for it? I seriously doubt it would equal even half of the active player base the server had. The ROI is just not there. Blizzard has other IPs to think about. D3 is humming, Hearthstone is a huge hit, HotS, Starcraft and now Overwatch. Plus the often rumored classic remasters of their older games like D2 and Warcraft. Blizzard has no need to do this. In my opinion nor should they.
I am looking forward to new games, not games that have been on the market for years. There are many I am looking forward to.
There is equally no proof that Blizzard would not make a lot of money out of the introduction of legacy servers .
There is an indication given the obvious popularity of private legacy servers that there is money to be made . Just have to use a little common sense to see it would be good business practice to at least try it .
Also you say Blizzard has no need to do this . What is the logic behind that statement . Blizzard is a business and WoW subscriptions have dropped by a huge amount in recent years . ( actually by the size of the population of a small country like Denmark ) It has a need to make money like every other business . If there is interest in something that Blizzard could offer quite easily compared to the production of a new game that could increase revenue then it is foolish not to try it .
The fact you can't see that makes me question your business acumen to the point I would highly recommend you never run one of your own because you would probably lose the shirt off your back .
In the short term I dont think they will though . Longer term might be a different story .
Also you say Blizzard has no need to do this . What is the logic behind that statement . Blizzard is a business and WoW subscriptions have dropped by a huge amount in recent years . ( actually by the size of the population of a small country like Denmark ) It has a need to make money like every other business . If there is interest in something that Blizzard could offer quite easily compared to the production of a new game that could increase revenue then it is foolish not to try it .
Sad as I am to say it, while WoW brings in a lot of money, it is increasingly overshadowed by, in particular, Hearthstone along with eSports revenue generated by Heroes of the Storm. Over the past several years, Blizzard has shown its clear intention to lean development teams working on smaller games that generate insane amounts of money. Warcraft doesn't fit that formula and, while it IS still a cash cow, its spot at the core of revenue generation is diminishing with more money being thrown at other projects.
Biggest problem is the people running WoW today, when you have tom chilton saying he doesn't expect subs to rise, not to mention "NO, and by the way you don't wanted that to do that, you think you do but you don't" Just look at previous blizzcons and you would see what appears to be the greatest paper version of WoW and the HYPEtrain they lead up the game with. When in reality all they are selling you on is spreadsheets that look good.
edit: not to mention every year expressing an idea of quicker content and more updates... every year we're let down.
Blizzard putting up vanilla servers would more than likely botch it up beyond belief because they can't see past the tip of their wallet. (it's a business, I get that.) I just think outdated content of this extent should be left for passionate Gamers to pick up and run with. I think there needs to be line drawn that keeps private servers running as long as it run content three or more expansions behind or if a game is no longer supported and has X amount of years in the grave, as to not step on the toes of business. Edit: at the very least with vanilla servers you already know what you're getting and you know the content is already there.
All due respect for your answer. Truth be told those are all fragmented separate stories and no one came into my house and told me my copies were useless. ... Blizz is not immune and their choices are catching up with them.
Apart from you know... New52.... Infinite crisis..... Marvel Now.... AllNewAllDifferent... and anby other major ret-con those companies have made...
Compared to that... Blizzard have been down right gentle with their lore. And just because you can not PLAY the exact same game as before does not invalidate the story being told.
And i say it again (in case you missed it the first time) NOTHING Blizzard could have done would have saved them from negative customer churn on a product that is over 10 years old... That is reality.... Having classic realms would have the same effect as a regular expansion (and opening them would take the release spot of said expansion) a shotr spike in subs and then a gradual decline.
It's amusing to me that players either seem to complain about waiting for new content or that they want to get rid of all the new content and go back to the beginning.
How long could the hardcores play on a vanilla server before getting bored? I don't see the long term payoff. It's a theme park and it needs new content.
We've all been there a million times with old games... load it up, interact and reminisce a bit, be done with it again like you were long ago; as there was nothing coming you were interested in and you've already done what's there, in some cases, multiple times..(alts).
The problem with classic realms, it seems to me, is that first it will be a vanilla server with 1/2 of those folks wanting it "pure" and "undiluted" as it was in 2004 -- but then there would be clamoring for bug fixes, then patches. The other 1/2 would want quality of life improvements for UI and such. Then the content would get stale because, you know, it's not going to actually expand the story, just the same old same old ad nauseum.
Then would be the call for Burning Crusade servers with free transfers -- as if Blizzard has ever given realm transfers for free -- and rinse / repeat with the purists facing off against the ones with QoL improvements, further splitting the player base.
Then the Lich King proponents would want their time in the sun.
Opening vanilla realms is like a gateway drug -- it spirals out of control pretty fast.
That is the sense of entitlement that comes with PAYING to play on a hosted server by the developer.
Private servers don't promise to fix bugs that even Blizzard never fixed... why? Because they DON'T HAVE THE CODE to do so... they patch in the fixes using the same patches that Blizzard deployed. If Blizzard never fixed it, they won't fix it either.
The very server that Blizzard is forcing to shut down had an extremely large population for a private server and yet the game itself was in a very similar state as many of the smaller ones out there. Same bugs et al only a healthier population. What kills the population on many of the other ones? Not the bugs or QoL improvements... in most cases its because the server gets annihilated by DDoS attacks that make playing for any length of time a crap shoot.
Let the private servers run the game, just give them the code (if it exists... which at this point I suspect is extremely unlikely that it actually does). Nothing changes for Blizzard. They will continue to bleed subs as always and those who want to play the game that they PAID for once again. Sure there are those who didn't actually pay for a retail copy of WoW, but a good chunk of them did.
In a nutshell, Blizzard isn't going to force players to return to retail... those that have any itch to do so, can easily play both versions. Players who have been around a while also know how to play on the test servers for free, so it's not like players aren't playing retail WoW for free this very moment. It's a simple fix to quash those people... and yet, they eat those losses without blinking an eye. From a PR perspective, it's a dick move by Blizzard because they don't even entertain the idea of offering their fanbase an alternative. Which they've asked for time and again and have been told in no uncertain terms, not only no, but hell no. Let the private servers run the game... don't give them the code if you ever had it to begin with. Let them trudge along with the little bits and pieces they managed to savage from the internet because some packrat forgot to delete them from their server.
Lets be honest here, they rebuilt the game from breadcrumbs left around the internet... pretty amazing if you ask me. Most of those sites that hosted the old patches have long since disappeared. It's like an archeology experiment.
It's amusing to me that players either seem to complain about waiting for new content or that they want to get rid of all the new content and go back to the beginning.
How long could the hardcores play on a vanilla server before getting bored? I don't see the long term payoff. It's a theme park and it needs new content.
We've all been there a million times with old games... load it up, interact and reminisce a bit, be done with it again like you were long ago; as there was nothing coming you were interested in and you've already done what's there, in some cases, multiple times..(alts).
The problem with classic realms, it seems to me, is that first it will be a vanilla server with 1/2 of those folks wanting it "pure" and "undiluted" as it was in 2004 -- but then there would be clamoring for bug fixes, then patches. The other 1/2 would want quality of life improvements for UI and such. Then the content would get stale because, you know, it's not going to actually expand the story, just the same old same old ad nauseum.
Then would be the call for Burning Crusade servers with free transfers -- as if Blizzard has ever given realm transfers for free -- and rinse / repeat with the purists facing off against the ones with QoL improvements, further splitting the player base.
Then the Lich King proponents would want their time in the sun.
Opening vanilla realms is like a gateway drug -- it spirals out of control pretty fast.
That is the sense of entitlement that comes with PAYING to play on a hosted server by the developer.
Private servers don't promise to fix bugs that even Blizzard never fixed... why? Because they DON'T HAVE THE CODE to do so... they patch in the fixes using the same patches that Blizzard deployed. If Blizzard never fixed it, they won't fix it either.
The very server that Blizzard is forcing to shut down had an extremely large population for a private server and yet the game itself was in a very similar state as many of the smaller ones out there. Same bugs et al only a healthier population. What kills the population on many of the other ones? Not the bugs or QoL improvements... in most cases its because the server gets annihilated by DDoS attacks that make playing for any length of time a crap shoot.
Let the private servers run the game, just give them the code (if it exists... which at this point I suspect is extremely unlikely that it actually does). Nothing changes for Blizzard. They will continue to bleed subs as always and those who want to play the game that they PAID for once again. Sure there are those who didn't actually pay for a retail copy of WoW, but a good chunk of them did.
In a nutshell, Blizzard isn't going to force players to return to retail... those that have any itch to do so, can easily play both versions. Players who have been around a while also know how to play on the test servers for free, so it's not like players aren't playing retail WoW for free this very moment. It's a simple fix to quash those people... and yet, they eat those losses without blinking an eye. From a PR perspective, it's a dick move by Blizzard because they don't even entertain the idea of offering their fanbase an alternative. Which they've asked for time and again and have been told in no uncertain terms, not only no, but hell no. Let the private servers run the game... don't give them the code if you ever had it to begin with. Let them trudge along with the little bits and pieces they managed to savage from the internet because some packrat forgot to delete them from their server.
Lets be honest here, they rebuilt the game from breadcrumbs left around the internet... pretty amazing if you ask me. Most of those sites that hosted the old patches have long since disappeared. It's like an archeology experiment.
None of which, of course, entitles them to do so. The IP belongs to Blizzard. The game belongs to Blizzard. All names, stories, quest lines, characters etc. belong to Blizzard. The game continues to evolve with or without the disaffected and, amazingly, still belongs to Blizzard.
They will never franchise or license private servers for the simple fact that it opens up a legal can of worms and liability issues.
When the game is "finished" and moves into maintenance, then you can bet that legacy servers will arrive, though it is possible they may before though 10 years of saying NO says otherwise.
they wont give players a vanilla server now , why would they? , they are interested in selling you this new expansion , and the mounts and pets on the Store ....things that u wont be able to buy if u are playing in vanilla .....
plus we all know how this thing work....plenty of ppl around the 1 month , as soon as ppl remove the rose tintered glasses....ppl will quit.
Blizz know it , and we know it.....
I agree with your first sentence, but didn't the ever increasing population of the private server kind of counter "Rose tinted glasses" argument? Not saying applied to every player that joined, but the fact this servers playerbase was on the rise and had so many players on at one time kind of says this goes well beyond that imho.
It's amusing to me that players either seem to complain about waiting for new content or that they want to get rid of all the new content and go back to the beginning.
How long could the hardcores play on a vanilla server before getting bored? I don't see the long term payoff. It's a theme park and it needs new content.
No one is asking for content to be removed in favour of older content. People just want more engaging and fun content. imho the only reason people are asking for old servers or jumped on Nostralius is they're finding the current version not very appealing, they want a WoW fix, but can't obtain it from the current version. If WoD turned out to the be the best Xpac ever, I could 100% say we wouldn't have heard next to nothing about legacy servers. Jumping on the EU forums you can see this, not saying this represents the whole playerbase, but it does give an insight into how some players feel.
Jumping on the EU forums you can see this, not saying this represents the whole playerbase, but it does give an insight into how some players feel.
A cursory glance at the Nost forum and you run into 100+ threads that say SPAM BLIZZ FORUMS - SPAM DEV TWITTER - SPAM WOW FACEBOOK and so on. I'd say it's a pretty noisy minority. In addition, the ostensible 150k 'active' players can't be bothered to sign the petition.
I'm not saying there's not a portion of the WoW community that wants this but I think we've all been around the Internet and its forums long enough to know that the VAST majority of people who visit and read them do not post and it's usually the disaffected who do. It's kind of disingenuous to say the EU forums show anything other than a bunch of posts by a proportionately small percentage of total WoW fans miffed somehow that their voices aren't heard.
Comments
For me, it was community I had to work and talk with other players and not just treat them as interactive NPC's that help me do crap. It's one of the reasons I really favour Final Fantasy 14, I have a lot to do in that game and work with others in FC and Linkshells to achieve those common goals.
Interacting with people in MMO's is how real memories are made, its why there is Nostalgia in place in the first place.
So much cry and concern to level fast to get to Endgame, that they have to fuck up a whole world instead of just giving the people who want to rush and hate to level a "Fast Forward" and "Skip" to "Endgame" button. You would think that would have been a lot easier, simpler and more popular than dumbing down and trivializing the world and all the content.
I just don't get it. Seems like common sense to me.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Drum Roll please.......
It wouldn't be profitable.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Quite frankly, the opportunity cost for a company like Blizzard far surpasses the most optimistic napkin math the fans have been throwing around for vanilla servers.
On the other hand, I think there's more to be said for having the attention and good will of players than shows up on any given income statement. Steam and GOG also show that players will happily pay to relive their old gaming experiences (or to have ones they never had the chance to experience). It's not just nostalgia. There is a market for enjoyable gaming experiences no matter how technologically outdated they are.
As I suggested in the previous article on this topic, while it's probably not currently feasible, what I'd like to see are legacy servers for each expansion that allow players to start new characters in whatever expac they choose and either keep the character at the expac's cap to enjoy its endgame or migrate to a future expac (but not back) and continue from there.
How long could the hardcores play on a vanilla server before getting bored? I don't see the long term payoff. It's a theme park and it needs new content.
it just doesn't seem like an undertaking that would have any longterm payoff or benefit for either side.. There'd be no long term appeal in it for anyone, outside of the minority that is content with running the same raid over and over again ad nauseam., as the only thing really keeping the majority of people going in such games, is the promise of what's to come in the form of content updates.
That's why it just seems like people want it for the sake of nostalgia alone.
We've all been there a million times with old games... load it up, interact and reminisce a bit, be done with it again like you were long ago; as there was nothing coming you were interested in and you've already done what's there, in some cases, multiple times..(alts).
At the most you give it a new play-through if it's something highly engaging like KOTOR or Morrowind. IS WOW really that game?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
plus we all know how this thing work....plenty of ppl around the 1 month , as soon as ppl remove the rose tintered glasses....ppl will quit.
Blizz know it , and we know it.....
150,000 active accounts 15$ USD / month = 2,25 million USD lost (assuming a lot naturally)
DAoC - 00-06 - And every now and then
WoW - Online since launch - and now back again.
EVE - Online since 07 - and still on, and on, and on..
WHO - Online 08-10
LOTR-O - Online 06-08
Also played : Asherons Call, EverQuest, EQ2, Dungeons & Dragons, Cabal, Dark & Light, GW, GW2, LA2, Ryzom, Shaiya, SWG, Allods, Forsaken World, ArcheAge, Secret World, Darkfall, Rift, ESO, Tera.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Then would be the call for Burning Crusade servers with free transfers -- as if Blizzard has ever given realm transfers for free -- and rinse / repeat with the purists facing off against the ones with QoL improvements, further splitting the player base.
Then the Lich King proponents would want their time in the sun.
Opening vanilla realms is like a gateway drug -- it spirals out of control pretty fast.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There is equally no proof that Blizzard would not make a lot of money out of the introduction of legacy servers .
There is an indication given the obvious popularity of private legacy servers that there is money to be made . Just have to use a little common sense to see it would be good business practice to at least try it .
Also you say Blizzard has no need to do this . What is the logic behind that statement . Blizzard is a business and WoW subscriptions have dropped by a huge amount in recent years . ( actually by the size of the population of a small country like Denmark ) It has a need to make money like every other business . If there is interest in something that Blizzard could offer quite easily compared to the production of a new game that could increase revenue then it is foolish not to try it .
The fact you can't see that makes me question your business acumen to the point I would highly recommend you never run one of your own because you would probably lose the shirt off your back .
In the short term I dont think they will though . Longer term might be a different story .
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Blizzard putting up vanilla servers would more than likely botch it up beyond belief because they can't see past the tip of their wallet. (it's a business, I get that.) I just think outdated content of this extent should be left for passionate Gamers to pick up and run with. I think there needs to be line drawn that keeps private servers running as long as it run content three or more expansions behind or if a game is no longer supported and has X amount of years in the grave, as to not step on the toes of business. Edit: at the very least with vanilla servers you already know what you're getting and you know the content is already there.
Apart from you know... New52.... Infinite crisis..... Marvel Now.... AllNewAllDifferent... and anby other major ret-con those companies have made...
Compared to that... Blizzard have been down right gentle with their lore. And just because you can not PLAY the exact same game as before does not invalidate the story being told.
And i say it again (in case you missed it the first time) NOTHING Blizzard could have done would have saved them from negative customer churn on a product that is over 10 years old... That is reality.... Having classic realms would have the same effect as a regular expansion (and opening them would take the release spot of said expansion) a shotr spike in subs and then a gradual decline.
This have been a good conversation
Private servers don't promise to fix bugs that even Blizzard never fixed... why? Because they DON'T HAVE THE CODE to do so... they patch in the fixes using the same patches that Blizzard deployed. If Blizzard never fixed it, they won't fix it either.
The very server that Blizzard is forcing to shut down had an extremely large population for a private server and yet the game itself was in a very similar state as many of the smaller ones out there. Same bugs et al only a healthier population. What kills the population on many of the other ones? Not the bugs or QoL improvements... in most cases its because the server gets annihilated by DDoS attacks that make playing for any length of time a crap shoot.
Let the private servers run the game, just give them the code (if it exists... which at this point I suspect is extremely unlikely that it actually does). Nothing changes for Blizzard. They will continue to bleed subs as always and those who want to play the game that they PAID for once again. Sure there are those who didn't actually pay for a retail copy of WoW, but a good chunk of them did.
In a nutshell, Blizzard isn't going to force players to return to retail... those that have any itch to do so, can easily play both versions. Players who have been around a while also know how to play on the test servers for free, so it's not like players aren't playing retail WoW for free this very moment. It's a simple fix to quash those people... and yet, they eat those losses without blinking an eye. From a PR perspective, it's a dick move by Blizzard because they don't even entertain the idea of offering their fanbase an alternative. Which they've asked for time and again and have been told in no uncertain terms, not only no, but hell no. Let the private servers run the game... don't give them the code if you ever had it to begin with. Let them trudge along with the little bits and pieces they managed to savage from the internet because some packrat forgot to delete them from their server.
Lets be honest here, they rebuilt the game from breadcrumbs left around the internet... pretty amazing if you ask me. Most of those sites that hosted the old patches have long since disappeared. It's like an archeology experiment.
They will never franchise or license private servers for the simple fact that it opens up a legal can of worms and liability issues.
When the game is "finished" and moves into maintenance, then you can bet that legacy servers will arrive, though it is possible they may before though 10 years of saying NO says otherwise.
*shrugs* Time will tell, yeah?
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No one is asking for content to be removed in favour of older content. People just want more engaging and fun content. imho the only reason people are asking for old servers or jumped on Nostralius is they're finding the current version not very appealing, they want a WoW fix, but can't obtain it from the current version. If WoD turned out to the be the best Xpac ever, I could 100% say we wouldn't have heard next to nothing about legacy servers. Jumping on the EU forums you can see this, not saying this represents the whole playerbase, but it does give an insight into how some players feel.
Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.
I'm not saying there's not a portion of the WoW community that wants this but I think we've all been around the Internet and its forums long enough to know that the VAST majority of people who visit and read them do not post and it's usually the disaffected who do. It's kind of disingenuous to say the EU forums show anything other than a bunch of posts by a proportionately small percentage of total WoW fans miffed somehow that their voices aren't heard.
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