World of Warcraft is fighting against private servers. After Turtle WoW, another operator is now in focus, who is giving up immediately.
Private servers, sometimes referred to as pirate servers, have a long history in World of Warcraft. They have popped up here and there, especially when players wanted a “classic” experience that they couldn’t find in modern WoW.
However, in recent years, these servers have surprisingly thrived. Many have established themselves as large projects, with up to 50,000 players. Some operators have a development team of 100 people – real money is being made. So much money, in fact, that blunt advertisements for these unofficial servers are being placed on YouTube or Reddit.
The catch: This is generally not permitted. After all, Warcraft belongs to Blizzard, and if others make money from it or Blizzard loses revenue because the game can be played for free on private servers, that’s a problem.
Which server is affected now? After Blizzard took action against “Turtle WoW” a few days ago, it is now also targeting “Project Epoch”. The operators have received a “Cease and Desist” from Blizzard – a cease and desist order. They have announced that they will comply with this request and stop all work immediately. The news was shared on the MMORPG subreddit:
However, there are also initial indications that Project Epoch is simply being “handed over”. Another private server project has already announced that they want to “take over” the work of Epoch and “adhere to the planned roadmap for Epoch”.
The fact that this is even possible is likely due to the fact that some private server operators have little fear of being pursued by authorities – perhaps because they are located in Russia or other countries that do not cooperate with American or European law enforcement.
Fans have hope for Classic+
The fact that Blizzard is currently taking a strong stance against private servers after several years of calm at the front could have several reasons. On the one hand, there is certainly the absolutely legitimate reason to protect their copyright and to prevent others from making money from it.
At the same time, many fans believe that this is a measure in light of the upcoming announcement of a new game mode for the official “Classic”. Blizzard has already hinted that they themselves were working on some sort of “Classic+” after the season of discoveries came to an end.
However, there has not yet been an official announcement from Blizzard regarding “Classic+”. Therefore, it remains merely a diffuse hope for fans that the increased attack on the private servers of World of Warcraft – especially those that have offered their own new content – is merely preparation for their own Classic+.
Moreover, not everything is rosy in modern WoW – there is currently a quest chain that some consider to be the worst quest in all of WoW.
