Blizzard Responds to Nostalrius Server Closure Complaints

[spartandude]

I hate, HATE, it when developers of a game claim something is too hard to do but a bunch of fans can do it for free in their spare time.

Blizzard, if you actually do like the idea of older versions of WoW, why not contract and brain storm with the guys that made this server. It's not like you are hurting for money.

 

[aeroblaster]

We aren't sure whether this version of a clean slate is something that would appeal to the community

The closure led to a petition calling for the reinstatement of the server, which has since gathered over 235,000 signatures

lol

Blizz is so clueless. Just implement the "pristine realm" as a kind of hardcore mode. Problem solved.

 

[Flathole]

"You think you do, but you don't" video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuOYmqSF6OQ

It's not even Blizzard anymore.

It's Activision-Blizzard.

THIS is Blizzard. THIS is what Blizzard WAS.


Bobby Kotick has long since slain them and raised their corpses to do his bidding.

They could easily set up separate servers for different expansions. Classic server, BC server, WotLK server, etc. But that wouldn't be profitable enough. Lawsuits are where the REAL money's at!

 

[Politrukk]

Plenty of people dropped WoW because they felt the newer expansions ruined the game and private servers tend to offer paid incentives, they've been making money off of this that's why Blizzard went after them.

When WoW started all those years ago people were astonished at the playerbase reaching into the millions, a playerbase of 100 thousand players is still a significant addition.

Actually, the majority of people dropped WoW because as the games industry expanded, there was a huge surge of new MMOs which were built from the ground up on better engines with superior gameplay, cleaner mechanics and better visuals. The gameplay quality of WoW wasn't 'killed' by an expansion, but there are simply better games out there.

The only appeal of Nostalius is nostalgia. In an alternate reality where WoW was relatively stagnant with no new expansions to "ruin the game", they'd still lose all their subs over time, because WoW simply isn't as good of a game by today's standards.

Seriously, if neither modern WoW or vanilla WoW ever existed, and both games were suddenly introduced as two new IPs, the modern WoW game would be more popular, because vanilla WoW is just simply a bad game.

It's just so easy to be nostalgic for something you played 10 years ago.

And no, the people running Nostalrius were not making money. At all. But at the same time, no one was ever paying money. It's literally the equivalent of having a game accessible for free on a torrent website.

Nemmerle
28 Apr 2016 3:11 pm

@Politrukk: yeah, that's fine. Just don't link to them or blatantly promote it. Feel free to quote me in your post so it doesn't get moderated by mistake.

Okay so this is a bit late but I only just read I was allowed to go into this(so the reply is partially catered but not just to you sorry if I'm going a bit broad here):

The big point is that Nostalrius is not the only server and playerbase that's out there there are servers like for example Molten Core that offer a layered version of WoW with Microtransactions.
Servers like these don't just cater to the Vanilla lovers crowd theirs also a big market for players who want to play the game up to and including Wrath of the lich king.

People are pretending there isn't a demand for this but I think you can make a full server list of at least 20 big private servers that are currently running micro-transactions or not that have not been shut down by blizzard yet and have vast communities.

A quick google search shows a ranking of top WoW private servers lists and reddits that have a very broad range. 250 servers with a 1000 players each is still 250.000 people playing on private servers, now one could again answer that this is simply because it's "free" but then the micro-transactions and how lucrative they seem for some reason tells a different story.

You say the appeal of private servers is nostalgia.

I say the appeal seems to have a wider range :
Instant level boosts (this is why WoW has started selling and marketing these) for people who just don't have the time.
Old PVP focus with the old Ranking system and instant arena
Customizable settings.
Old content that people love or have missed to be played in its original form. (sure you can solo the Lich King nowadays but where's the fun in that).
The microtransactions are actually a favourable influence on some servers where they allow players to buy certain difficult to farm/grind weapons be it for the skin changes you can do these days or just to get up to that raiding level quicker.
Better pacing

I actually wonder if Nostalrius even was the big behemoth out there or just one of several that happened to be hit.

So many internet lawyers. Seriously guys, while it is a shame that Nost got shut down, from a museum, preservation perspective, you don't know your way around IP law. If that's the case, that is the fucking case. Unless you've got articles, clauses, specific laws and an actual argument other than "omg blizzard is lying, I KNOW THIS FOR A FACT BECAUSE I AM PSYCHIC AND NOT JUST RAGING.", shut up.

So many Blizzard employees too, who'da thunk it? Some dudes running a private server for a significantly smaller number of private customers is not the same as Blizzard as a company running Vanilla servers. You are literally comparing apples and oranges here.

Stop it.

So how about those of us who do know their way around the law?

I can tell you this : it is logical that Blizzard is shutting down every private server they can find and muster the possible legal fees/resources for from the laws point of view.

The hosting old content servers on the other hand... that's pretty simple, the easy answer here is if you think it can't be done then why is it being done?

Did Blizzard throw out all their old infrastructure and if so do they not have the knowledge/ability to reclaim it? they're the creators how could it be impossible for them to revert to an older version?

 

[Politrukk]

I say the appeal seems to have a wider range :
Instant level boosts (this is why WoW has started selling and marketing these) for people who just don't have the time.
Old PVP focus with the old Ranking system and instant arena
Customizable settings.
Old content that people love or have missed to be played in its original form. (sure you can solo the Lich King nowadays but where's the fun in that).
The microtransactions are actually a favourable influence on some servers where they allow players to buy certain difficult to farm/grind weapons be it for the skin changes you can do these days or just to get up to that raiding level quicker.
Better pacing

-Okay, first, the reason that Blizzard offer level boosts is because a lot of the community (myself included), wanted them so that we don't have to spend a ton of our time trying to level alt #19 through the same zones which we have played to absolute death. It isn't to simply cheat.
-And 'customizable settings' is pretty vague. Outside of private servers which let you equip yourself with the strongest gear (which are boring as hell, trust me, I've played them). There's really never been an appeal there.
-PvP was never too great in WoW. It has almost always been overrun with unbalanced classes and twinks. They are doing a better job of rectifying this in Legion.
-Old content is accessible in Blizzard's WoW. It's the entire reason that Timewalking dungeons are a thing now.
-Blizzard's WoW has microtransactions.

In reality. The only two major drawing points of private servers are 1. There are legacy servers, and 2. They're free servers. Literally the equivalent of torrenting a game. It's pirating.

If Blizzard did bring a legacy or pristine server to WoW, the majority of people would remain on the private servers, simply because they're free, and it doesn't take very long for the enjoyment of nostalgia to fade.

You're literally assuming that the second that Blizzard launches a new server, that every private server is suddenly going to vanish, and every single player on every single server will flood back to WoW.

-The micro transactions are different, you can purchase certain loot items.
-I think it is naive to believe that Blizzard only started offering level boosts by community demand, the rise of private servers that offered this will definitely have influenced it and still private servers offer that service for free.
-The same goes for faster paced leveling which had been a thing on private servers for years before Blizzard finally got to adjusting the rate and even then they didn't offer the variety that private servers do.
-You must not have played WoW in the old days because apparently you've forgotten that Azeroth looked completely different before the Cataclysm and people yearn back to that sense of comfort, they like the world they knew and felt it had been changed for no good reason, even at the release of Cataclysm there was backlash for that choice although it made sense for the story it made no sense for some of the playerbase.
-You also underestimate the appeal the old ranking system in pvp had alongside with the popularity of maps such as Alterac Valley which are played to death to this day the same as people still play games like the earlier versions of Battlefield and Call of Duty or even Age of Empires.
-Lastly but most importantly you seem to be confusing your experience with that of thousands of others, the market exists otherwise we wouldn't even be able to talk about this.

So currently you are discounting the leveling,gear purchase, and interest at the very least.

Blizzard will just keep catching flak if they do things like they're doing them now, especially with pretending there isn't a way to do it.