Blizzard executives have finally made their decision to shut down the "World of Warcraft" fan server Nostalrius. The game company considered running their own classic game servers, but it would be difficult to maintain.
The game company's executive producer J. Allen Brack said on the game's official forum that they could not let the fan server continue the way it was, because failing to protect against intellectual property infringement would only damage their rights. Anything that would use the game's IP would be included like unofficial servers for instance.
The game company was contemplating if they were going to run their own classic game servers for players who wanted to play the vanilla version of the game, but they ultimately decided that they would not continue it. To get the old servers running would mean to maintain them from time to time, and that presented them with a lot of operational challenges. They would have done it if it has been just a push of a button, but there were other factors to consider like the ongoing support of many live versions of the game.
After the server was closed down, the team behind the fan server made a petition for legacy servers for the game. According to the official website of Change.org, the petition has over 240,000 supporters now.
The game company has been closely monitoring the situation, and they appreciate what was suggested to them by the community. Their silence did not mean that they were not listening to what they wanted. They were discussing what was to be done with this topic, and explored every possible option to satisfy the game community.
The development team is considering on creating a realm where all leveling acceleration features will be turned off. Brack said that they have been discussing this idea over the years, but they are not sure if this type of realm will look appealing to the game community.
The development team of the game has also contacted the team behind the fan server. They know that the fan server team cares so much about the game, and they are looking forward to talking with them in the coming weeks.
Check out Mark Kern's open letter video below: