Nostalrius

Last updated

Nostalrius was a private World of Warcraft server, which opened on February 28, 2015. The server ran Patch 1.12, catering to aficionados of the early version of the game, nicknamed "Vanilla". Stating breach of copyright, Blizzard Entertainment issued the administrators of the server a cease and desist letter, and so the Nostalrius server was shut down on April 10, 2016, leading to outcry on Facebook and Twitter and large-scale coverage in mainstream computing journalism.

Contents

It was one of the most successful private servers to date with over 800,000 accounts registered. After the conclusion of Nostalrius servers, a discussion about the possibility of Blizzard opening official "Legacy" servers had begun.

Discussion of legacy servers

The launching of the private Nostalrius server brought the issue of "vanilla" legacy servers to the forefront of discussion for World of Warcraft. A petition on Change.org received over 280,000 signatures pleading Blizzard to hear the voices. [1] Many famous Youtubers have made videos on this very topic discussing the pros and cons of Legacy servers, and it managed to get the attention of one of the original designers of World of Warcraft, Mark Kern, who supports the idea of Legacy servers. Blizzard Entertainment was silent on the issue until April 25, where the lead game developer responded to the discussion.

Blizzard's response

On April 25, 2016, J. Allen Brack responded to the Nostalrius discussion. He spoke of the possibility of "Pristine" realms, with many of the new features turned off, to make leveling harder, and social interaction more prevalent in the game. [2] [3]

On November 3, 2017, Blizzard announced World of Warcraft: Classic, an official "vanilla server", in response to the popularity of Nostalrius and Elysium Project. [4] It was released 27 August 2019.

Further developments and the return of Nostalrius

After a month or so of large scale protests, Blizzard invited the Nostalrius team to the Blizzard HQ to present the case for Vanilla. An eighty-page "post-mortem" document describing the development of Nostalrius, the problems that happened and some marketing strategies was presented to Blizzard, and after some time, released on the Nostalrius forums. In the following six months, Blizzard did not respond at all to any communication from the Nostalrius team [5] Allen Brack and the World of Warcraft development team announced they would not be making any statements about Vanilla at the 2016 BlizzCon convention. [6] Consequently, the Nostalrius team released their source code to Valkyrie-WoW, another long-standing private Vanilla WoW server, hosted in Russia, and the Nostalrius servers returned on December 17, 2016, under the name of Elysium Project, with the player database as it had been just before the shutdown in April. [7] [8] In October 2017, the Elysium servers were taken offline when it had been revealed that some staff had been involved in gold selling and character manipulation, which went against the 'Blizzlike' philosophy the team purportedly stood for. [9] The servers returned one month later, with the project rebranded as Elysium Project "Nighthaven". [10]

WoW Classic and ties to Nostalrius

In an interview published on November 4, 2017, by Eurogamer, J. Allen Brack said and they would welcome the involvement of Daemon and Viper, the leads of the Nostalrius project in the production of World of Warcraft: Classic. [11] However, at BlizzCon 2018, developers Brian Birmingham and John Hight stated that there were no members of the Nostalrius team working on WoW Classic. [12] [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blizzard Entertainment</span> American video game publisher and developer

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduates of the University of California, Los Angeles: Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce and Allen Adham. The company originally concentrated on the creation of game ports for other studios' games before beginning development of their own software in 1993, with games like Rock n' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings. In 1993, the company became Chaos Studios, Inc., and then Blizzard Entertainment soon after being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates early in the following year. Shortly after, Blizzard released Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.

<i>World of Warcraft</i> 2004 video game

World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the Warcraft fantasy universe, World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events of the previous game in the series, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, World of Warcraft has had nine major expansion packs: The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), Mists of Pandaria (2012), Warlords of Draenor (2014), Legion (2016), Battle for Azeroth (2018), Shadowlands (2020), and Dragonflight (2022).

Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of five core games: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone. The first three of these core games are in the real-time strategy genre, where opposing players command virtual armies in battle against each other or a computer-controlled enemy. The fourth and best-selling title of the franchise is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), where players control their character and interact with each other in a virtual world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BlizzCon</span> Annual gaming convention by Blizzard Entertainment

BlizzCon is an annual gaming convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to promote its major franchises including Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Kaplan</span> American video game designer (born 1972)

Jeffrey Kaplan is an American video game designer and former vice president of Blizzard Entertainment, a position he held until he left the company in 2021. He designed elements of World of Warcraft and is the former lead director of Overwatch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leeroy Jenkins</span> World of Warcraft character

Leeroy Jenkins is a player character created by Ben Schulz in Blizzard Entertainment's MMORPG World of Warcraft. The character became popular in 2005 from his role in a viral video of game footage where, having been absent during his group's discussion of a meticulous plan, Leeroy returns and ruins it by charging straight into combat while shouting his own name as a battle cry. The video capturing the character's behavior became an Internet meme. As a result of positive reception to the meme, Blizzard subsequently added Leeroy Jenkins into World of Warcraft as an official non-player character and as a minion card and later as a hero in the online card game Hearthstone.

<i>World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King</i> 2008 expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is the second expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following The Burning Crusade. It launched on November 13, 2008 and sold 2.8 million copies within the first day, making it the fastest selling computer game of all time released at that point. The game added a substantial amount of new content into the game world, including the new continent of Northrend, home of The Lich King Arthas and his undead minions. In order to advance through Northrend, players were required to reach at least level 68, with the level cap for the expansion being 80. The first hero class was introduced, the Death Knight, that starts at level 55.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Street</span> American video game designer

Greg Street is an American video game designer and former Head of Creative Development for Riot Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle.net</span> Online gaming platform by Blizzard Entertainment

Battle.net is an Internet-based online game, social networking service, digital distribution, and digital rights management platform developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The service was launched on December 31, 1996, followed a few days later with the release of Blizzard's action-role-playing video game Diablo on January 3, 1997. Battle.net was officially renamed to "Blizzard Battle.net" in August 2017, with the change being reverted in January 2021.

<i>World of Warcraft: Cataclysm</i> 2010 expansion set for World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the third expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Wrath of the Lich King. It was officially announced at BlizzCon on August 21, 2009, although dataminers and researchers discovered details before it was officially announced by Blizzard. The expansion was officially released on December 7, 2010.

Titan was the project name for a cancelled Blizzard Entertainment massively multiplayer online game. With speculation regarding the game beginning in 2007, Blizzard revealed little information besides that it would be completely new and not be based on the company's then-current three main franchises.

<i>World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria</i> 2012 expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the fourth expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Cataclysm. It was announced on October 21, 2011, by Chris Metzen at BlizzCon 2011, and was released on September 25, 2012.

<i>Heroes of the Storm</i> 2015 video game

Heroes of the Storm is a crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Announced at BlizzCon 2010, it was released on June 2, 2015 for the OS X and Windows. The game features various characters from Blizzard's franchises as playable heroes, as well as different battlegrounds based on Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch universes.

<i>Hearthstone</i> Digital collectible card game by Blizzard Entertainment

Hearthstone is a free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Originally subtitled Heroes of Warcraft, Hearthstone builds upon the existing lore of the Warcraft series by using the same elements, characters, and relics. It was first released for Microsoft Windows and macOS in March 2014, with ports for iOS and Android released later that year. The game features cross-platform play, allowing players on any supported device to compete with one another, restricted only by geographical region account limits.

<i>World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor</i> 2014 expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor is the fifth expansion set to the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Mists of Pandaria. It was announced on November 8, 2013 at BlizzCon 2013. The expansion was released on November 13, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvanas Windrunner</span> Character in Warcraft series of video games

Sylvanas Windrunner is a fictional character who appears in the Warcraft series of video games by Blizzard Entertainment. Originally introduced in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, she received a dramatic redesign in World of Warcraft: Legion to her current appearance, much more in line with her in-universe lore depictions. Once a high elf ranger-general of Silvermoon, Sylvanas was murdered by Arthas Menethil when she led a doomed resistance against his invasion. In one climactic battle, that left the capital city of Silvermoon in ruins, he managed to finally beat the elven general, ripping her soul out and transforming her into a banshee. This newest agent of the Lich King was empowered by hatred of the living and an everlasting desire to rule over her new people. In The Frozen Throne, Sylvanas was able to regain her free will, body and founded the Forsaken faction of undead while styling herself as the "Banshee Queen" and "Dark Lady". With her new undead forces vowing to take revenge on the Lich King, they set out to wage war against the Scourge. As of World of Warcraft's patch 7.0.3, she is also the incumbent Warchief of the Horde, standing as one of the most powerful political leaders in all of Azeroth following the death of Vol'jin.

<i>World of Warcraft: Legion</i> 2016 expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Legion is the sixth expansion set in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Warlords of Draenor. It was announced on August 6, 2015 at Gamescom 2015. The expansion was released on August 30, 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kripparrian</span> Romanian-Canadian Twitch streamer

Octavian Morosan better known by his online username Kripparrian, is a Romanian-Canadian Twitch streamer, YouTuber and video game personality. He is known for his achievements on Diablo III, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, winning the "Favorite Hearthstone Stream" and Most "Engaged" Viewers categories, and coming second in the "Highest Stream View Average" category at the Blizzard Stream Awards in 2014. In June 2017 he achieved over one million followers on Twitch and as of July 2021, he has over 1.4 million followers.

<i>World of Warcraft Classic</i> 2019 massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft Classic is a 2019 MMORPG video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Running alongside the main version of the game, Classic recreates World of Warcraft in the state it was in before the release of its first expansion, The Burning Crusade. It was announced at BlizzCon 2017 and was released globally August 26, 2019. The Burning Crusade Classic and Wrath of the Lich King Classic versions of the game were later released to allow players to progress to those expansions.

<i>Warcraft III: Reforged</i> 2020 video game

Warcraft III: Reforged is a remastered edition of the 2002 real-time strategy video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion The Frozen Throne. Released on January 28, 2020, it adds revamped graphics, new campaign gameplay settings as well as modern online Battle.net features. The game received mixed reviews from critics and an overwhelmingly negative reception from players for its changes from the original, the lack of many announced features and technical issues.

References

  1. ↑ "Nostalrius petition passes 200k signatures, Mark Kern to deliver it". PC Gamer. 22 April 2016. Archived from the original on 12 December 2018.
  2. ↑ "Official Reply to Vanilla Servers and Nostalrius - MMO-Champion". www.mmo-champion.com.
  3. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (26 April 2016). "Blizzard breaks silence on Nostalrius WoW server, says classic servers under discussion". Polygon.
  4. ↑ Messner, Steven (3 November 2017). "This is how Blizzard plans to finally bring back Vanilla WoW servers". PC Gamer.
  5. ↑ "Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12) • View topic - Post Mortem document release". forum.nostalrius.org.
  6. ↑ "World of Warcraft Forums".
  7. ↑ "Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12) • View topic - Now is the time for Legacy community reunification". forum.nostalrius.org.
  8. ↑ "Elysium Project — Vanilla 1.12.1 Legacy Server". elysium-project.org. Archived from the original on 2017-06-03.
  9. ↑ "WoW's biggest legacy server project is forced to relaunch after accusations of corruption". 17 October 2017.
  10. ↑ "Elysium Project - Classic WoW Server".
  11. ↑ Bratt, Chris (4 November 2017). "World of Warcraft Classic: We ask Blizzard our biggest questions". Eurogamer .
  12. ↑ "BlizzCon 2018 - WoW Classic Interview with Brian Birmingham and John Hight". Wowhead. 3 November 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  13. ↑ WoW And WoW Classic Leveling and Questing Addons
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.