World of Warcraft: Vanilla server drama

[JamesGoblin]

i am guessing that 200k people who are not paying to the coffers of Blizz have a small voice compared to the millions of subs they have

Having in mind that these 200k were moved by couple amateurs working for free (as opposed to multi-billion company), the value of that signal is certainly much higher than simple 3M vs 200k.

 

[Moriath]

200k playing for free doesnt equate to 200k paying to play.

Its like the record industry saying they missed out on x million cause the song was pirated so many times. Not all those people would pay for the track if they had to

 

[JamesGoblin]

What makes you think that only 200k would be paying for vanilla? That's quite heavy underestimate I'd say. Anyway, lots of people consider emus illegal, or are simply clueless etc. - Blizz wouldn't have problems reaching them if they just decide to.

 

[Deebs]

Blizzard makes an official response:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/17611300963?page=1

 

[BloodOmen]

Blizzard makes an official response:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/17611300963?page=1

Aye just read it, I don't believe the part about it being "difficult" though, end of the day if a team of inexperienced people can do it with a from-scratch server, there is no reason a company with Blizzards resources and experience can't do it. They could have just taken Nostalrius's data and worked on it from there.

It's a step in the right direction at least, just have to see how it unfolds over the next few weeks, I still think there is room to make Blizzard budge closer to a proper Vanilla server.

 

[Deebs]

View attachment 32626

Aye just read it, I don't believe the part about it being "difficult" though, end of the day if a team of inexperienced people can do it with a from-scratch server, there is no reason a company with Blizzards resources and experience can't do it. They could have just taken Nostalrius's data and worked on it from there.

It's a step in the right direction at least, just have to see how it unfolds over the next few weeks, I still think there is room to make Blizzard budge closer to a proper Vanilla server.

I hope the part about them being in direct conversation with some of the Nost devs is also true, that would indicate something positive.

 

[BloodOmen]

I hope the part about them being in direct conversation with some of the Nost devs is also true, that would indicate something positive.

Aye, I don't even think Mark Kern has delivered the petition to them yet either, so that'll also likely have an impact of sorts. If they keep talking to the Nostalrius people and the community keeps pushing for it, I do think they'll cave in eventually.

 

[Raven]

Why would they bother if the investment involved outweighs the profit? Separate patches, separate...wow has come so far it would essentially be a different game, for a couple of 100k people.

It would probably also have to be separate to battlenet as plenty of stuff is integrated cross account.

 

[BloodOmen]

Why would they bother if the investment involved outweighs the profit? Separate patches, separate...wow has come so far it would essentially be a different game, for a couple of 100k people.

It would probably also have to be separate to battlenet as plenty of stuff is integrated cross account.

They could be very smart about it tbh, the petition is currently at 240k, obviously every single person on that petition isn't going to be a sub, and obviously there is a lot of people who want Vanilla but didn't sign the petition or just haven't heard about it (as hard as that is to believe) there are probably some duplicates in there. Let's say for the sake of the argument they get 100,000 players off the bat for a legacy server

$18,000,000 a year off those 100,000 alone, I'm pretty confident it would attract at least 300-400k players, maybe even more, people that never got to try Vanilla may even renew for the experience. They can totally spin a profit off this.

Now in true Blizzard style they will find some way to integrate the cash shop, as I said above, probably by implementing pet battles to Vanilla as they have no impact on gameplay, so there's that too.

 

[Gwadien]

I like the part where they said 'They stole from us' rather than 'They're stealing customers.'

 

[BloodOmen]

Mark Kern reckons the Blizzard thing is trying to cover up/throw sand over the petition which is being dropped off today

"do you think them giving us a statement on the day you was originally was meant to drop the pages was on purpose ?"

"Yes, it was very much timed to try and deflate the video and petition drop-off. They posted it before woken hours."

 

[BloodOmen]

 

[BloodOmen]

 

[Deebs]

Have tweeted Mark's message to Mike. Here's hoping for change

 

[BloodOmen]

No one wants Vanilla WoW, honest... *cough*

 

[Moriath]

Doesnt look like blizz are offering it. Just a current gen with less whistles.

 

[Deebs]

Mike Morhaine is meeting Mark Kern and Blizzard have agreed to meet Nost team at Blizz HQ.

 

[BloodOmen]

Mike Morhaine is meeting Mark Kern and Blizzard have agreed to meet Nost team at Blizz HQ.

Aye just read, possibly exciting stuff coming over the weekend, don't see why they'd meet them all in person if they were just going to flat out say no. My guess is Blizzard want Nostralrius's official population figures from Nostralrius people themselves rather than just internet hearsay.

Some things we can pretty much guarantee

Blizzard will not grant nostralrius an operating licence, they need to protect their IP, they could however ask for help (as daft as that sounds) in setting up a Vanilla server, Blizzard hasn't done Vanilla for years, they've lost touch with it, the Nostralrius guys are on the ball though so could give lots of info of sorts.

 

[JamesGoblin]

Blizz can actually hire a couple of Nos guys (directly or under some other arrangement), besides asking for info.

"You think you want it but..."

 

[Billargh]

I think I'd probably give the game a try again if a vanilla server appeared.

 

[Gwadien]

I just hope these Nos dudes get due credit if Blizzard do set this server up, and perhaps get a job.

 

[BloodOmen]

Announcement coming very shortly (as is in minutes, at least that's what their latest twitter post implies, one of the Nost team has been in California speaking with Blizzard directly)

 

[BloodOmen]

@Deebs feel free to remove the links if you deem them shady, was just copying their message directly. Not much of an announcement either way, they definitely built that one up over nothing

Dear community,

The last few weeks have been full of exciting events that we did not anticipate. We saw the first official answer from J. Allen Brack on the topic of legacy servers, the petition reached 250.000 signatures, and we are currently scheduling a meeting at Blizzard campus!

We are very excited to be able to help Blizzard understand the part of their community asking for legacy servers and many other related topics, in the hope that they will eventually make it possible to legally play previous game expansions.

Since these events are major changes regarding the legacy server scene, completely changing our former strategy, we have several announcements today:

A. Ambassadors of Legacy servers

After the answer from Blizzard and the amazing support we received, we feel we are now not only the admins of a private server: We are also the ambassadors of a larger movement for the entire World of Warcraft community that wants to see game history restored. It is a major responsibility. Our top-priority and only focus now is to fulfill the needs of this community, by carrying your voice to Blizzard directly.


B. Nostalrius source code and database won’t be released

We acknowledge the help that the emulation community provided to us by creating MaNGOS and our initial objective was to release part of these sources to help improve the current emulators - without our special anti-cheat and some other critical features.

Our custom anticheat had unique functionalities that allowed us to detect and track any kind of hack / bot in a generic way. We believe the anticheat that we made was able to detect and was able to block all of the known threats, and releasing our code would allow the development of more powerful cheating tools that would be more difficult, if not impossible, to detect. We have spent countless hours to fight people making money from exploits, cheats and traffics: the last thing we want to see now is people getting more money from wow hacks because of us.

Some voices in the emulation scene wanted to legally force us to release the complete source code if we chose to only publish a part of it. As explained above, the anticheat is not something we would reveal in any case.

A second important point is that keeping the sources private could be useful at some point during the discussion with Blizzard. They proposed to discuss together and we want to have all the chances on our side, for the community we represent now.

Furthermore, if official legacy servers were to be released at some point in the future, the emulation would become, in essence, obsolete.



C. A special gift for you

On a side note, the development team has prepared a gift for you. One of the hidden Nostalrius features was the ability to "replay" sequences of the game. This is something that was mainly used to create our videos, but never released to players. We accumulated a few replays of different events that occurred on our PvP and PvE servers, and we are willing to let you replay these magic moments. We are glad to inform you that Nostalrius team is releasing the first "replay" feature for World of Warcraft, and will be available to anyone: a powerful tool for future e-sport event maybe ?

The source code is available here (based on BunnyEmu, credit to their developers) :
GitHub - NostalriusVanilla/NostalriusMemories: Credit to https://github.com/marijnz/BunnyEmu
You can download the package with replays here:
https://mega.nz/#!sdtiWCTT!vBUMCrGP8_BB ... ryEOl2usDM

Requirements (not provided):
World of Warcraft original 1.12.1 client
Optional: WDB item cache filled (or you will see players naked)

We hope you will enjoy these replays that we are introducing here and you will be able to carry these wonderful Nostalrius memories for ever with you.

D. Community feedback and thoughts

We will need the help and feedback of the whole World of Warcraft community to carry all their voices, and make the meeting with Blizzard a success. More information will be available on an announcement next week. Please, stay tuned!

Best regards,
Nostalrius Team.

 

[Deebs]

I've been playing on my own private server running WotLK, currently level 8. Oh what memories it is bringing back

 

[Moriath]

I've been playing on my own private server running WotLK, currently level 8. Oh what memories it is bringing back

Does it get lonely hehe

 

[Ctuchik]

As announced previously, we are also in contact with Blizzard representatives. We are excited to announce that the meeting date has been decided: it will occur at the beginning of June at Blizzard HQ, Irvine. No precise date nor schedule will be provided for security reasons

lol....

 

[BloodOmen]

lol....

They'll have been asked by Blizzard for the security part.

 

[Scouse]

The truth is that WoW (and gaming in general) has been dumbed down to increase the profit.

Fixed.

I liked the old WoW but UI "improvements" made it noddy - i.e. easier. It's pretty much the same across the board.

Funny thing is tho - gaming was still profitable "enough" when it was niche. It's a shame there's not a lot out there that excites any more

 

[Moriath]

But commercially why wouldnt gaming go for the masses rather than the specialist person. Theres more money in the masses.

Its the pain of being a niche.

 

[Deebs]

Fixed.

I liked the old WoW but UI "improvements" made it noddy - i.e. easier. It's pretty much the same across the board.

Funny thing is tho - gaming was still profitable "enough" when it was niche. It's a shame there's not a lot out there that excites any more

Indeed it has. However I am really enjoying playing WoW on my private server. 9 hours to reach level 15 and I have 97 silver. Take on three mobs and I get fucked over quite quickly as a paladin. Currently questing in Redridge Mountains Did Westfall but after trying the Defias Brotherhood in Moonbrook decided it was time for a zone change. Forgot how they run off at 10% health and bring back more mobs