A player proudly shows the community that he owns an original server from World of Warcraft (WoW). Players want to know how he got it.
A player proudly shares on Reddit a photo of an original server from WoW. And not of the game, but of the hardware on which the game itself is usually hosted – a server blade
. This is the role-playing server “Argent Dawn”. However, we cannot say whether it is the European or US server.
Meanwhile, the post has received over 15,000 upvotes and many people from the community want to know how to get such a server.
Old WoW servers are regularly auctioned for good causes
How does one get an old server? Blizzard regularly auctions off retired hardware and other items from its inventory for charity. During these events, old servers are also put up for auction:
- In October 2011, Blizzard reported that they raised $330,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital from the sale of retired server blades. That’s roughly 300,000 euros.
- For WoW’s 15th anniversary, Blizzard also auctioned off old server blades at Blizzcon 2019.
What kind of servers are these? Technically, blades are the smallest servers that require minimal physical space. Several blades are inserted into a rack, which is the frame for servers. You can imagine it like drawers.
The small size of the blades has a disadvantage as well: upgrading them is usually difficult, which is why server blades are eventually retired.
WoW still relies on individual servers where players are active, while other games, like Elder Scrolls Online, only use a giant mega-server where all players log in. However, this overlooks the fact that a mega-server is not a single server, but several connected servers.
Here, too, there are several servers working together. Recently, a significant limitation in WoW has been lifted, as you can now trade across the entire server. You can read more about it directly on MeinMMO: WoW has virtually erased the server separation – Free trade for all
