Blizzard Officially Comments on Nostalrius, Hints at "Pristine Realms"

Well-nigh iii weeks agone, nosotros reported that Blizzard legally forced the closure of the Vanilla World of Warcraft private server Nostalrius.

That action ignited a huge debate within the customs. Fifty-fifty ane of the original developers of Globe of Warcraft, Mark Kern, decided to bring the petition to Blizzard and stated that classic servers would bring back the feeling of community which was progressively lost through updates and expansions.

A few hours ago, Blizzard finally broke the silence through J. Allen Brack, Executive Producer and Senior Vice President at Blizzard Entertainment. He addressed the topic with the post-obit post on the official Globe of Warcraft forums:

We wanted to let you know that we've been closely following the Nostalrius discussion and nosotros capeesh your constructive thoughts and suggestions.

Our silence on this subject definitely doesn't reflect our level of engagement and passion effectually this topic. We hear you. Many of united states of america across Blizzard and the WoW Dev team accept been passionate players ever since classic WoW. In fact, I personally work at Blizzard because of my love for classic WoW.

We have been discussing archetype servers for years - it'due south a topic every BlizzCon - and peculiarly over the by few weeks. From active internal team discussions to after-hours meetings with leadership, this subject has been highly debated. Some of our current thoughts:

Why not merely let Nostalrius continue the style information technology was? The honest answer is, failure to protect against intellectual property infringement would damage Blizzard's rights. This applies to anything that uses WoW's IP, including unofficial servers. And while we've looked into the possibility – in that location is not a clear legal path to protect Blizzard's IP and grant an operating license to a pirate server.

We explored options for developing classic servers and none could be executed without bang-up difficulty. If we could push a button and all of this would exist created, nosotros would. Withal, at that place are tremendous operational challenges to integrating classic servers, not to mention the ongoing back up of multiple alive versions for every aspect of WoW.

So what can we exercise to capture that nostalgia of when WoW showtime launched? Over the years nosotros have talked most a "pristine realm". In essence that would turn off all leveling acceleration including character transfers, heirloom gear, graphic symbol boosts, Recruit-A-Friend bonuses, WoW Token, and admission to cross realm zones, as well every bit group finder. Nosotros aren't certain whether this version of a make clean slate is something that would appeal to the customs and it'due south still an open topic of word.

1 other annotation - nosotros've recently been in contact with some of the folks who operated Nostalrius. They obviously care deeply virtually the game, and nosotros look forward to more than conversations with them in the coming weeks.

You lot, the Blizzard customs, are the nigh dedicated, passionate players out there. Nosotros cheers for your effective thoughts and suggestions. Nosotros are listening.

It sounds similar there'due south hope for these "pristine realms" at to the lowest degree, though there'due south no telling how long it will take the studio to reach a concluding decision on the subject - Blizzard is not exactly known for being quick.

Still, nosotros'll be sure to report any developments on Wccftech. Would you lot be interested in playing on 1 of these pristine realms? Let u.s. know beneath.