Vanilla Only Dedicated Server?

[Martie]

Private servers are a violation of the Terms of Service, the End User Lisence Agreement, and International Copyright Law. Please do not promote illegal activities on an official fansite.

Come on, he's mocking the idiocy of private servers more then anything else.
Private servers are more BMO then MMO.
(That's Barely Multiplayer Online.)

[stgeorge]

They won't do it. And here is why.

1. Have additional hardware to run the different software versions, this costs money.
2. They need additional employees to support the additional hardware and software versions, this costs money.
3. Contrary to popular belief, they have to maintain that outdated software because of integration points which have changed. For instance, the 1.4 client didn't use Battle.net authentication. So as much as people would like to believe it can exist in its own little world, it actually can't. This costs money for more developers to support and retrofit changes to prior versions of the application.
4. The user of said services is required to maintain multiple client installations. A 3.3.3 client can not run on a 1.4 server. Both client and server applications have to be at the same level in order to function correctly. There are major changes to the client software that also occurs in patches which make in incompatible with prior versions (such as the LUA core replacement in the 2.0 patch). This costs Blizzard more money to support the user's different setup.

So lets see here...

Lose Money
Lose Money
Lose Money
Lose Money

Where again is this a decision Blizzard would want to make?

Or Blizzard can outsource this work to a company who'd be glad to do it for them and pay them a recurring license fee. If there is no market for it, then the company that took the risk goes out of business and Blizzard loses nothing. If there is a market for it, then the vanilla & BC fans are happy and Blizzard has an additional revenue stream since it's unlikely those people would cancel their main accounts.

Don't need to have an MBA to figure this out, but perhaps the marketing geniuses at Blizzard are too busy coming up with new ways to nickel and dime their fans than to actually listen to their fans.

[Errvalunia]

Here's a solution:

Live in the present. Everything seems better in the past--it's called nostalgia. Your grandparents probably want to tell you about how much better the world was when they were young, but you can't travel back in time and you can't un-invent the interent. So learn to live with it.

[mavfin]

Or Blizzard can outsource this work to a company who'd be glad to do it for them and pay them a recurring license fee. If there is no market for it, then the company that took the risk goes out of business and Blizzard loses nothing. If there is a market for it, then the vanilla & BC fans are happy and Blizzard has an additional revenue stream since it's unlikely those people would cancel their main accounts.

Don't need to have an MBA to figure this out, but perhaps the marketing geniuses at Blizzard are too busy coming up with new ways to nickel and dime their fans than to actually listen to their fans.

I'm sure the marketing people have mathed out that it's not worth the investment, or they'd be doing it. I'm going to say that imo there's not nearly the market for it that some think there is. I sure as hell don't want to go back to Vanilla. I spent two years there. That was enough.

[NewfieDave]

The biggest problem with outsourcing such servers is that they would be splitting their market. It's a whole lot of effort for minimal net profit.

[Loganisis]

The biggest problem with outsourcing such servers is that they would be splitting their market. It's a whole lot of effort for minimal net profit.

Actually it would be the loss of control over their proprietary product, as they'd have to give some access to the code to the server code to the 3rd party (and even if they didn't, it would be housed off-site limiting control).

[stgeorge]

Actually it would be the loss of control over their proprietary product, as they'd have to give some access to the code to the server code to the 3rd party (and even if they didn't, it would be housed off-site limiting control).

This is exactly the arrangement Blizzard has with the Chinese market, they don't run or control those servers, whatever company they contracted handles all that for them. The source code is modified per whatever requirements the Chinese government imposes on them (no skeletons!)

[Nurasha]

This is exactly the arrangement Blizzard has with the Chinese market, they don't run or control those servers, whatever company they contracted handles all that for them. The source code is modified per whatever requirements the Chinese government imposes on them (no skeletons!)

It may come as offtopic but I find it quite relevant to this topic. Why aren't Blizzard just abandoning China if they want to regulate what would be a violation of the company's rights in any other country? Why take such crap?
If the Chinese have to live w/o WotLK, then do they still get the changes the rest of us do? They must to minimize server costs etc. as previously stated in this thread if I take people's posts correctly.

[Bashal]

Why aren't Blizzard just abandoning China if they want to regulate what would be a violation of the company's rights in any other country?

Well, I imagine they stand to make enough money to offset the inconvenience. It's just a pragmatic business decision.

Besides, there are plenty of cultural taboos or differences in other countries which, when looked at a certain way, can seem offensive or odd, but really are harmless (there are others that aren't harmless no matter how you look at it, but I'm not talking about those here, and please let's not get into that, kk?)

[stgeorge]

It may come as offtopic but I find it quite relevant to this topic. Why aren't Blizzard just abandoning China if they want to regulate what would be a violation of the company's rights in any other country? Why take such crap?
If the Chinese have to live w/o WotLK, then do they still get the changes the rest of us do? They must to minimize server costs etc. as previously stated in this thread if I take people's posts correctly.

Blizzard gives their outsourced company a version of the BC server code. The Chinese company handles all the remaining operational details. As for why they bother? The Chinese government does not allow foreign companies to conduct commerce there, they must always work via a local company. Beyond that, it's 5 million people paying a few pennies per hour (they don't subscribe) that keeps Blizzard interested...

And it's not just China. Blizzard has similar arrangements in other countries. For example, Mexico & Russia will be getting SC2 as a subscription for about $30 per 6 months (both single and multi-player). Once the subscription runs out, no more game.

[gacktt]

A vanilla only dedicated server wouldn't be classic anyway. Unless they reverted everything to patch 1.11 or something. You can be 60 and use the same gear, but the fact of the matter is that the 60 raids are ridiculously easy considering how much powerful we are from the talent and mechanic changes alone.

[Qewqewmoarz]

A vanilla only dedicated server wouldn't be classic anyway. Unless they reverted everything to patch 1.11 or something. You can be 60 and use the same gear, but the fact of the matter is that the 60 raids are ridiculously easy considering how much powerful we are from the talent and mechanic changes alone.

It would be patched to that version.

[Arikak]

This is like the official forums minus Zarhym copy/pasting canned responses.

[stgeorge]

Here you go:

"Activision-Blizzard, Inc. does not at this time or any other time in this known universe, have any plans or admit to even having discussed or not discussed the possibility or no possibility of creating a server or servers, or no servers at all for the "Classic WoW Premium Subscription ($2.99 per month)" option which is not yet announced or planned to be announced at any time or no time at all."

[Arikak]

Here you go:

"Activision-Blizzard, Inc. does not at this time or any other time in this known universe, have any plans or admit to even having discussed or not discussed the possibility or no possibility of creating a server or servers, or no servers at all for the "Classic WoW Premium Subscription ($2.99 per month)" option which is not yet announced or planned to be announced at any time or no time at all."

That's more like it.