BLIZZARD RESPONDS - BLUE POST

[Killershama]

Im hoping that Mark Kern can use some of his magic on the Blizzard devs to convince them of legacy servers not this pristine server garbage.

[Winterflaw]

While they have ruled out operating any legacy servers themselves with this post, they don’t seem to have ruled out the possibility of licencing them out to third parties – they only say that they can’t give out operating licences to pirate servers.

I don't take their statement at face value.

When people don't want to do something, any obstacle which allows it not to be done is taken at face value and it ends there.

When people want to do something, they remove obstacles.

Companies license IP all the time. Bliz is not special or different.

The issue is Bliz don't *want* to do Vanilla.

[Aegy]

I want legacy servers.
If blizzard cant or refuses to provide them I feel forced to play on private servers.

Humans express two responses to any given situation - one intellectual, one emotional.

We decide our intellectual response, what we *think*, but not our emotional response, what we *feel*; feelings happen *to* us.

On an emotional level, I see my reaction, and I want and I am determined to get Vanilla WoW back.

On an intellectual level, I think that the IP belongs to Bliz and they have the right to do what they like with it - including being completely dumb and refusing to allow anyone to use it.

The outcome for me of these two conflicting responses is that I will play on private servers and do everything I can to make them exist, but I will also pay a retail sub to Bliz.

If I'm going to be unethical, knowingly so, I seek to minimize the extent of that unethicality.

Paying for a product that you think is bad is not ethical, that is for sure. It is bad for Blizzard in that their product deteriorates because they are not signaled when they do wrong. It is bad for those paying and playing the game that could have played a better version because of this. Since you wouldn't play retail anyway, Blizzard has not lost out on money other than from their own mistakes.

[Winterflaw]

Are we really getting there? This just seemed like a very polite "No" to me, unless I'm being more jaded than I should.

It was a polite no.

But I think it is movement - prior to this, Bliz would not even acknowledge the existance of the Vanilla movement.

[Winterflaw]

The only good thing about this is (apart from getting a response in the first place) that they are still in contact with the Nostalrius developers.

That part of the statement was in my view decidedly vague. We in our hope and optimism are I think reading a much more solid and meaningful communication that probably occurred. It may be the contact amounted to the exchanges which occurred in the process of the C&D being issued, and the Nost team having to surrender to it.

[Snowblood]

So what does this mean ?

No legacy server from blizz
No right at all for other to run private servers
Maybe some kind of bullshit server with some bonuses turned off...( lol for real guys ?)

To sum it up.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TzLnbt15uuU/maxresdefault.jpg

[Winterflaw]

Indeed. If we take the statement and derive from it Bliz's current view, it means;

1. more C&Ds - we'll shut down Kronos
2. no Vanilla
3. no licensing Vanilla

No mention of hiring Nost.

4. We've been *thinking* (it's not being offered) about "Pristine" servers (which approximately no-one has any interest in).

All it is really, from our POV, is one step fotward; Bliz have actually acknowledged the existane of the Vanilla movement. Prior to this, Bliz I think thought they could get away with just ignoring it.

[Dr. Doom]

Pristine servers are a downright terrible idea. It has little or no market at all.

People who want vanilla/BC degree of levelling difficulty and story immersion will not be satisfied with it. Removing level boosts, heirlooms, tokens, mounts for recruiting (lol deep change), and LFD is at the very best, a minor hiccup compared to regular retail servers. The increased experience gains added with every expac, as well as the overpowered player characters (never having to stop for mana, dishing much more damage) means that you can just quest and grind very easily and get to max level without any real need to group, few or no deaths and still do so in record speed compared to Classic WoW.

People who do not care for a challenging and immersive story, will not bother with a server that is essentially retail, but forcing them to take a couple days to level up instead of just 1 day.

This lazy approach to have an 'alternative' to market to hardcore players, if followed, would just end up in more failure since it's just a minimal upgrade. There is probably nobody at Blizzard reading this, or if they are, it won't matter, but try to get this through your thick skulls: There are no cheap/easy fixes that make any real difference. If something is easy to achieve, it probably isn't worth it

[Devarial]

They went from "You think you do, but you don't" to having conversations with Nostalrius dev team.

That is huge. If they were firmly against Vanilla servers idea, why contact them at all?


With that being said, and Mark Kern video/message and 230k+ petition, and multiple GMs confirming legacy servers are a big topic at HQs these days, and all this Nost shutdown outrage that is still going on, I am completely convinced we will get Vanilla servers announcement shortly after Legion flops (and it will).

Blizzard is now considering their best options to get this to work, in financial, marketing and technical terms. Of course they won't say "We were wrong, Vanilla servers are coming in 2 months." after Nost shutdown.

They are calculating how much of a profit Vanilla servers would make, because they now have the resources for the testing and estimations. And when they do release them, it will be a success they haven't seen in years.

[kiraito75]

I think they lost a battle here, with this answer. Because, our community CAN NOT be satisfied without a Legacy server. That's all. Bring back NostalriusBegins, or do your own Legacy server. But if not, the problem remains.

I think they are just understanding that right now.