Bliz must *not* offer Vanilla - they must *license* Vanilla

[Winterflaw]

Getting Bliz to offer Vanilla is the *WRONG* answer.

If this happens, we're stuffed - not today, not tomorrow, but soon, and we'll be right back to where we started.

The WoW team at Bliz *made retail what it is today*.

You trust *these* guys to run a Vanilla server?

Without modifying it? without making it slowly more and more like retail? without in fact hating every second of it because first, they're implicitly told what they've done isn't great and they've been messing it up for years because so many people want Vanilla; next, they're given those *very same servers* to run and maintain?

*Bliz lacks the human capital necessary to run Vanilla servers*.

The ONLY actual way forward here is for decent, outside teams of devs who love Vanilla to run that project.

Bliz needs to *license* 1.12.1, not offer it themselves.

[Aquane]

I don't quite trust actiblizz to run vanilla servers right myself

what would stop them from filling it up with microtransactions, cross-realm BGs/LFG/LFR and worse, and other things that would make the game more casual?

its best in the long run that actiblizz never makes legacy servers because of that

[Drasheran]

@Winterflaw

I think your idea is the most insightful I have heard regarding this issue.

[VeloxBanks]

I was honestly kinda scared to speak my mind about this but I guess this is the best time.

The team that made vanilla, TBC and Wrath isn't the same as the one that worked on Cata and everything after that. That alone is enough to tell us that Blizz run legacy servers would be terrible. They'll just be another way for them to leech MORE money from us. And I'm NOT talking about the sub fees. There is absolutely no way legacy servers are going to be legit. I really like the mention of difference between making Vanilla servers out of love and out of greed. Anyone with half a brain will guess which route Actiblizz is going to take.

[Duninn]

Agreed. Independent teams should be allowed to obtain a license to run a server as long as non-profit and no additions that take away the spirit of the game. Like most.of you I do not trust the current team to run a legacy server. I can see $25 for a 60 boost becoming a thing. Ideally I would only be okay with it if Blizzard hired the Nost team for the job.

[Drasheran]

except for very few issues, the nost version of classic was anyways better at handling higher pops than the blizz classic server. Even more so if they were to finish their clustering tech

[winfernal]

Agreed. I don't trust blizzard with maintaining vanilla servers, they wouldnt let it stay the way it was/is. I'd rather have someone like the nost crew working on it for them, for example.

[Rivvern]

As I mentioned in another topic, I wholeheartedly agree with this, even though I did sign the open letter.

I very much doubt a Blizz-run legacy server is going to be running on the old client - that wouldn't even make sense, bug-wise. They'll modify the existing one (and that's probably the most resource-intensive task and what holds them back from catering to our crowd earlier) to the old map and keep lots of new features they feel are "necessary". And it goes without saying, there'll be an ingame shop.

It'll just be like a funserver. I, for one, would very much prefer to stay on Nostalrius if that's what Blizz ends up doing.

[Jaykylls]

The liscensing is a great idea. It puts pressure off of Blizzard's dev team to take care of these legacy servers and puts in the hands of the fans that want it and can afford it.

[Forcerius]

What we need is a practical demand we all agree on, like re-opening Nostalrius and reversing legal action. Then an effective "protest" Assuming the Nostalrius team even wants to continue. They could be opting out willingly. And we don't want a blizzard vanilla server because it will cost money and inevitably suck when they ruin it with a bunch of extra nonsense.

Petitions WONT WORK (they never do, right?) because that leaves 100% of the decision to the company, and they wouldn't have done it to begin with if there was a chance of them reversing it. Also, they would look like idiots for making a significantly bad decision. So Blizzard must be FORCED to do it. And that is done with "effective protest" and organization. You get a bunch of people to agree to do something LEGAL that will cripple the company or whoever has the power to reverse the decision. And usually the threat alone is enough for them to agree. For instance, here are some real examples of "protest".

- Thousands of people order an item or items from Blizzard (preferrably something cheap), then agree's to return it. The losses the company would get from that are unimaginable, and that's an example where the threat alone may cause them to meet our demands. But it must be organized. You can't just say "Ok internet, lets go!"
- Thousands of people call their support line at the same time, then just mutes their phone and goes afk. Their support service would cease to function while that's happening. They would also fall behind, among other significant effects. And its legal.
- Do something at the blizcon event like having hundreds of people stand in line, only to walk away when they actually get to the counter.

The KEY is to be SINCERE, HUMOROUS, and LEGAL. For instance, when you get to the counter, even though the last 5 people "didn't have tickets". You still say something like, "WOW WEIRD WHAT A CONICIDENCE, I DONT HAVE ONE EITHER?!?" then stick to the story while everyone quietly laughs, except for the target, because they can do NOTHING about it. Now that may not be a good example because it would piss off actual fans at Blizzcon when they couldn't enter. But the shockwave would be huge and Bliz would probably meet our demands from the threat alone, as long as its REAL, and people are 100% prepared to follow through. NEVER BLUFF. Just some advice if anyone cares enough to organize a real protest. The first step is to gather a group of people and have a think tank on what we want and how to protest. Its the power of community organization. Gathering information is also important. We need to know as much as we can about the company, services, and people who work there.

But isn't that unethical? It depends. In this case, no, because we're talking about reversing legal action against a private server, not forcing them to pay us a ransom or even open their own server. So the "most ethical form of protest" depends on the situation. And if we're going to protest, then we might as well do it right instead of wasting time crying until we give up when nothing changes, like always.