Blizzard-run or Nost-run?

[drabus]

I have been silently watching the proceedings since the shutdown and am curious as to see what the results of the meetings between the Nostralrius staff and Blizzard turns into, and there are a few scenarios that I think are reasonable:

1) Blizzard Licenses Legacy IP to Nostralrius - I think this is the #1 option for most people here. Assuming the Nostralrius team can figure out how to pay for it (would you pay for a subscription to Nost?) then it would allow the servers to come back the way they were and all of the database/characters to be restored. And most importantly, they would be protected from being shut down in the future and it could be a "permanent" solution.

2) Blizzard Agrees to Legacy Servers As A Separate WoW Product - There are a lot of rumors out there as to the state of the source code from the final builds of each Legacy version (Vanilla, TBC, WotLK, Cata, etc) and why they just can't take them out of the source code vault and stand up the new servers. Instead, Blizzard has indicated that it is hard for them to do. My personal opinion is that they have all of the code to make it work, but some of it may not be compatible with the current Blizzard hardware infrastructure and it definitely would not be compatible with the current Battle Net configuration that has evolved quite a bit since Vanilla - where all of the games & accounts are linked/launched from the same Battle Net Launcher.

Therefore, this option would mean that Blizzard would setup Legacy Servers using the original code from each of the releases - progression or just plain final - so that it would be "100% blizzlike" but that it would be connected through the current Battle Net and infrastructure. Essentially, they would use the original launchers/patchers that they were using in each Legacy period (as a separate product) and they can buy compatible hardware infrastructure to support it. Obviously this option would have to have a subscription and it would be separate from the WoW subscription. And they would certainly start with fresh servers, no using of Nostralrius character data.

3) Blizzard Hires Nostalrius Staff to Run/Maintain Legacy Servers - Essentially the only difference between this option and #1 is that the Nost Staff would not be independent contractors - rather they would work for Blizzard themselves. This would also mean that any decisions would be controlled by the corporation and not the independent decisions of the Nost team - essentially they will work for "The Man". As a result, the server(s) could be shut down at any time because of corporate demands, and/or the server could be tweaked/changed to meet Blizzard's wishes. It would be unclear in this model whether or not the Nostralrius database would be preserved or whether it would be a fresh "Blizzard" server.

4) Blizzard Says - Thanks for Playing! Essentially, they give all of us and the petition a big middle finger and nothing productive comes out of it.


Personally, I think that is the order in which I would like to see things go...with an official IP license being granted as the top choice...and the big middle finger being the worst choice. However, if I were placing odds, the order would be #1, #4, #3, and #2.

Anyway, these are just my $0.02 opinions. Let's see what happens in the next couple of days/weeks.

[kiraito75]

Be real guys. Yours Nost's characters are dead for ever. Why? Nobody said that on our forums, maybe because we all secretly hope to get them back. But there is one obviously reason why they are dead. If an official legacy server is launched one day, we would pay a subscription to play. Whaterver Blizzard decides to do (their own server, or hire Nostal team), they want money. They have a choice: start the server with ours stuffed 60 characters or start the server with no character. Wich choice make the more money? The second one. A lot more money. We spent a lot of time to be level 60 and get stuffed. For Blizzard, this time means money. And Nostal's team would have no word on it.

Sorry for the bad english. I hope this is clear.

[EyeOfTruth]

What ever positive outcome there will be (if it ever will be), Blizzard makes a program to license legacy servers or hire Nostalrius team or Build up servers their own, they will make sure they control the service and who can buy the license.

Nothing will be left in the hands of the Original makers. Else than step out or keep up the service under Blizzards terms.

Oh just to remind you guys... I will have 1 minute silence for your lost characters you will never play again.

RIP

[Hammersplat]

My ideal world would be a Blizzard run server that includes members from the Nostalrius team. I think both groups have something they could contribute.

I like this idea. I loved that Nost was active against gold sellers and bots.

[Zanbaka]

The only problem with this question (what some people already have noted) is that it is simply impossible to know how Blizzard's version would be. However, there's some things that would almost certainly be different:

1. Population. I mean the pop on Nost was 10k, which will probably not be the case for the legacy servers. Although it caused a fair share of problems (lag, shit economy and stuff), the large population also had a certain unique charm. At least the xiao army would be repelled with the legacy servers, but even that had it's certain charm imo.

2. Talents. Nost uses the 1.12 talents, whereas on a legacy server it would most likely start from scratch. Hence the gameplay experience will be different. I myself prefer the 1.12 talents and I'm sure many others prefer them as well, but others don't so here a lot of potential conflicts may arise.

3. Progression. Now that it is more or less official that we won't be able to play with our old chars anymore, would you really be willing to level all the way up to 60, do countless hours of Molten Chore just to get the progress back? Not to mention that content will be released pretty slowly so AQ20 and AQ40 would have to wait for quite some time.

I myself would only play on a legacy server if we would get the characters back, but since we don't, I couldn't care less about a legacy server.

[Jeniwyn]

There is no doubt in my mind that the best possible servers would be Blizzard run. They have access to the original scripting and potentially fixes to some awkward bugs availible in their archives.

That said, with Blizzard servers there is the risk of them deciding to make changes beyond bugfixiles that would detract from the game. With the Nost team this is more unlikely. (Even though they decided to ban players for addons, that was by far the most rediculous, unblizzlike thing they ever did.)

I think that the upside of Blizzard servers outweigh the downside. But they should certainly put a very, very conservative person in charge. Someone who would make sure to not remove stuff, and not add things that would significantly change the experience.