Blizzard has officially commented on Nostalrius and the Classic servers for World of Warcraft .
A few weeks ago, Blizzard closed the “private server” Nostalrius through legal pressure. It hosted a very old version of World of Warcraft, with 150,000 active players playing under a different flag.
The closure of the server sparked a discussion: Why doesn’t Blizzard offer such Classic servers themselves when so many long for a way to play the old WoW?
Blizzard has been closely following the discussion
In a statement on Battlenet, Blizzard, represented by J. Allen Brack, has now addressed the situation regarding the Classic servers. Brack is the Executive Producer and Senior Vice President.
They have been closely monitoring the discussion about Nostalrius and Classic servers. The silence regarding the situation does not reflect the passion and attention with which Blizzard is following the topic.
Internally, they have been discussing “Classic Servers” for years, especially in the past few weeks. Some of these thoughts are now being shared publicly.
Why couldn’t Nostalrius just be left alone?
This wasn’t possible because it would have harmed the rights by not acting against this copyright infringement. And there was no way to not act against it while still ensuring that the rights were protected.
If there were a button for Classic servers, Blizzard would press it
They have explored options to set up their own Classic servers. But this is associated with huge problems. If there were a button that could simply create such Classic servers, they would press it. However, the difficulties of integrating such servers are immense. Not to mention the hassle of maintaining multiple versions of World of Warcraft simultaneously.
Alternative: Pristine Realms
They have thought about “Pristine Realms.” These would be servers where certain features, such as accelerated leveling, heirlooms, character boosts, group finders, and cross-realm zones, would be disabled. But they don’t yet know if this would appeal to the fans.
In the meantime, they are in communication with some of the people who operated Nostalrius. They look forward to exchanging ideas with them in the coming weeks.
