What if Blizzcon releases...

[WeirdGreenMist]

Blizz said they will never release a vanilla server ever.

They have actually said this about many things, and later reneged.

"We will NEVER offer in-game items for real life currency"

[Mdmadam]

Blizzard is time-locked in a state of denial. Its a sinking ship they will not abandon because they are blinded by their past success and pride.

They have the code, you don't ever destroy your old work, professionals just don't do that. They would archive it all so that they could reference it when creating new work.

All glory is fleeting.

[Keftenk]

Blizzard is time-locked in a state of denial. Its a sinking ship they will not abandon because they are blinded by their past success and pride.

They have the code, you don't ever destroy your old work, professionals just don't do that. They would archive it all so that they could reference it when creating new work.

All glory is fleeting.

I say the same thing about FFIX (since it has the same allegations of the code being lost)...still waiting for its Steam release

[WeirdGreenMist]

It's actually exceedingly common in the game development world for source code to be destroyed, lost or otherwise disregarded.

[Norjak]

They won't, and not because of any lame excuse they used before (the dog ate the source code, they will never ever, etc.)
It's just too big of a PITA (pain in the ass) to support two playerbases, two sets of code etc and it wouldn't be a real profit center for them - Blizzard is a big software house & they are busy making things that will make them money, and while this would make a few people happy it won't ever make them money - at least not until WoW is dead & buried, and we're still a ways from that happening.

[Bioness]

It's actually exceedingly common in the game development world for source code to be destroyed, lost or otherwise disregarded.

Yes, but this code was released to the public, we're not talking about Alpha and Beta content here.

[Odomiah]

I'd stay here.

Blizzard had a decade to see they fked up. Nost guys lost 5 years of work to make this miracle happen.
Damn sure I'd support them by staying here.

[gotmilk0112]

Would they fix bugs before they were actually fixed?
Would there be unlimited raid debuff slots instead of the 8 then 16 we are dealing with now.

These are the main problems with an "official" vanilla server.

Fixing all of the bugs and glitches would take forever. And if they're going to fix bugs and glitches, that kinda makes it "not blizzlike" in a way, leading to arguments over how far they're going to go with the changes.

Not only that, but opening a vanilla server would be essentially a public admission that their current direction with the game is wrong and that older versions are superior, even if only for a minority of players. They've made such giant improvements to the game; they're not going to release something that is, compared to retail, a buggy, unbalanced mess.

People from retail would play it and whine about all the things that are different than retail.

"OMG where's dual spec?"
"OMG where's LFR?"
"OMG why does leveling take so long?"
"OMG why can I only fight 1 mob at a time and why does it take so long to kill?"
"OMG where are my skills? why aren't I getting them automatically?"

etc. etc.

The demand for a vanilla server is just too small for Blizzard to consider releasing one. And really, with their current mindset of trying to appeal to as many people as they can, releasing a server that appeals to less than 5% of the playerbase doesn't seem like a good idea.

while this would make a few people happy it won't ever make them money - at least not until WoW is dead & buried, and we're still a ways from that happening.

Yeah, I don't see Blizz ever opening a vanilla server until the game drops under 1mil subs and goes f2p. At that point, they could probably do something like that "runescape 2007" thing, and host different servers with different expansions on them.

[Setup]

The only way I'd play a blizzard-released vanilla realm is if the realm was not Blizzlike. (Irony, eh?)

To be specific, I'd join if they had the good sense to keep certain features from the modern iteration of the game. Achievements, the new PVP battlegrounds, rated BGs, guild banks... basically a laundry list of things I believe would make vanilla better.

I'd also be keen on them amping up the difficulty, continuing to work on refining talents, etc. Many significant problems (especially pertaining to talents and skills) were identified during vanilla but ignored until TBC or later expansions, for no other reason than convenience. I see no reason to praise the existence of these these problems -- I see no reason to treat how things were as unalterable scripture because Blizzard didn't get around to fixing it prior to 1.12.

But I also lack the faith in Blizzard to do any of this.

[Imbaslap]

doubt it.
they are fixated on overwatch.