After shutting down the fan-run private server, Nostalrius, Blizzard Entertainment finally offered an explanation. The game developer studio stated its reasons and steps it is taking next.
According to Destructoid, earlier this month Blizzard had to shut down Nostalrius, the fan-run vanilla "World of Warcraft" server. However, as word spread, this move has predictably led to even more fan support for the private server.
A post by executive producer J. Allen Brack on the WoW forums was summed up by Game Informer. Brack explained that Blizzard did not allow Nostalrius continue the way it was because of concerns that "failure to protect against intellectual property infringement would damage Blizzard's rights."
According to Brack, this applies to unofficial servers and anything else that uses WoW's IP. Blizzard Entertainment has considered the possibility to grant an operating license to the pirate server while protecting Blizzard's IP, but there is no clear legal path to this.
According to Cinema Blend, Brack also explained that Blizzard has looked into opening "Pristine" servers where it removes access to cross realm zones, recruit-a-friend bonuses, character boosts and "World of Warcraft" tokens. However, most users in the forum thread stated that they want a vanilla version of World of Warcraft rather than a "Pristine Realm."
Most of people were asking for a WoW vanilla server without all the altercations and changes brought by the expansion packs. A Change.org petition with more than 238,000 signatures asked Blizzard to allow players to access a WoW vanilla server.
That is just not possible, according to Brack. Blizzard Entertainment explored options for developing classic servers. However, integrating the servers would pose tremendous operational challenges and require ongoing support of multiple live versions for every aspect of WoW.
Blizzard has also been in contact with some of the people who ran Nostalrius, hoping to come to an agreement for a more satisfying resolution. More contacts are expected in the coming weeks.
