Crisis = Opportunity

[Shad0wsong]

I made this comment in the main announcement thread. But so many people post there, it will be buried rapidly. So I'm reposting it here under it's own thread to make it more visible in the hope that this initial idea could be used to create a better situation for everyone.



A large number of people want to play legacy servers. No one knows how many would be willing to pay a monthly subscription fee, or how much the ones who are willing to pay, would consider fair.

Blizzard does not currently want to spend the money to research and develop legacy servers. They believe Legacy servers will lose them money.

Rather than spending the money themselves, perhaps they should consider some form of franchising them to groups who have demonstrated they can host a quality legacy server. Because the profitability of legacy servers is such an unknown, perhaps it could be structured in such a way, that the group setting up the legacy server would be allowed a year or two to get set up and run it without there being an upfront purchase cost for the franchise. During those first couple of years, the legacy server group would provide a portion of their profits to Blizzard. At the end of the "trial" period, an actual purchase price could be determined. In future years, after the purchase of the franchise license, the legacy team(s) would continue to pay a portion of their profits to Blizzard.

Under the current set up - EVERYONE loses.
Players lose the game they love.
the legacy teams, such as the Nostalrius team, lose the beautiful dream they created
Blizzard loses a great deal of reputation, and comes out looking like a very bad guy. This can not help their sales.

Under a franchise set up this could be a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Players get the game they love.
Legacy teams, such as Nos, can continue to create the dream they envision, and possibly even be compensated for the enormous amount of work they do and have already done.
Blizzard gains rep and looks like a good guy, and they might gain increased income, both from the franchises themselves, and from increased revenue from their current games.

This has been a crisis. Crisis = Opportunity.
Seize the opportunity.

[Remember_Nostalrius]

As I've stated before this is the Mojang Model - have a centrally-administrated official account that has a game purchase credit to its name, and design the software to allow that account to log in on privately-run servers. Set up a few basic ground rules for the server admins to adhere to but otherwise let them run their own affairs and totally shoulder the financial and administrative burdens and risks.

[kovenant]

I guess what a lot of people forget is,
WOW Vanilla was played back in 2005 (10 years ago ) by a generation that is now "grown up".
they have money to spend on what they love opposed to the youngsters that rely on their allowance or parents.
for me I gladly pay 10 or 15 euro's a month even if I only play a few hrs a week.

in short, I guess that around 50% -70% of the people is willing to pay an amount to play the game.
down-side is that the more you will need to pay to play the game the more people will say no-no

[Arx_1]

I guess what a lot of people forget is,
WOW Vanilla was played back in 2005 (10 years ago ) by a generation that is now "grown up".
they have money to spend on what they love opposed to the youngsters that rely on their allowance or parents.
for me I gladly pay 10 or 15 euro's a month even if I only play a few hrs a week.

in short, I guess that around 50% -70% of the people is willing to pay an amount to play the game.
down-side is that the more you will need to pay to play the game the more people will say no-no

That's a good point.

I am 41 years old and an original WoW Vanilla player (Started playing in Dec 2005).

Apart from a very well paid job (I earn abt. 7,500 euros per month after taxes) and the ownership of a 40,000 euro Mercedes SLK, only my PC rig costs 2,795 euros to build.

15 euros is nothing. I spend that much per day on cigarettes and chewing gum.

[Fayz1]

15 euros is nothing. I spend that much per day on cigarettes and chewing gum.

I wish for your good health that WoW make you reduce it to none!

[Jenrin]

Hey, I think all who wants legacy servers have subscribed to WoW at some point in time. I see no reason why they would not pay for it if they want Blizzard to host legacy servers - that kinda comes with the package.

[fusionxw]

Everyone knows all the vanilla fan boys are going to play on Legion once it hits live. Get over it. It wont happen.

[PeaceHammer]

Everyone knows all the vanilla fan boys are going to play on Legion once it hits live. Get over it. It wont happen.

I couldn't possibly be less interested in Legion. I don't want to be an Illidan clone. I don't want "Artifact"... LOL .... weapons given to me just for logging in.

There is one way Blizzard will get my money again, official Vanilla servers.

[Toini]

"You say that as if you were the first man alive to think it. Yes a crisis is an opportunity. What other brilliant insights have you brought me today?"
IG character name - Tywinla

[Dardyksa]

Everyone knows all the vanilla fan boys are going to play on Legion once it hits live. Get over it. It wont happen.

we love you too....