Many World of Warcraft subscribers has chosen not to renew since Blizzard changed their gameplay from an unforgiving Dark Souls-esque format to a more newcomer friendly, casual style. To remedy this niche demographic, over 30 fans calling themselves Nostralrius located in France started what many have come to call a “vanilla” server of World of Warcraft.
(For those not in the know, “Vanilla” refers to the original World of Warcraft release, untouched before any of the fancy expansions).
However, while many fans took part in this server and found a long lost satisfaction in it, WOW is still Blizzard intellectual property. It was only a matter of time before it was shut down.
The end is nigh–or at least this coming April 10th. Rogue developers at Nostralrius released a statement via their official website when they recieved notice from Blizzard’s lawyers.
For over a year, you have been part of an extraordinary journey. A journey back in the early days of our beloved game. A journey in which hundreds of thousands of people took part in together. Something that we had never seen before, either on retail or private servers. Together, we built a strong community, sharing values and a commun genuine interest for this wonderful game created by Blizzard.
Yesterday, we received a letter of formal notice from US and french lawyers, acting on behalf of Blizzard Entertainment, preparing to stand trial against our hosting company OVH and ourselves in less than a week now. This means the de facto end of Nostalrius under its current form.
This fan made organization made no profit from their servers, and while it lasted, was free to play.This drew a lot of loyal players–800,000 registered, and 150,000 active when Blizzard’s notice came up. While the fan made server wasn’t able to host as well made of a server as titan developers at Blizzard, so they typically ran World of WarCraft v1.12–based on a major expansion after 2006’s Burning Crusade.
While fans were nothing short of a frothing cocktail of disappointment and loathing, there is something they can do with all the pent up frustration (other than angry online comments, that is). If up for it, fans are able to sign a petition here–which is making a surprising amount of successful headway.
While Blizzard has made no statement, Nostalrius has offered fans many condolences.
Nostalrius was all about the nostalgia and memories of the glorious vanilla days. We don’t know if you truly felt like it was the glory days while playing here, but we hope that you will keep good memories of the time spent here.
Again, whether or not you agree with the shut down, the WOW vanilla server will be closed as of April 10th. Who knows what will come of the petition?
More updates soon.