The Petition - Why it does not matter.

[Launchd]

They will ignore it and wait for all of this to blow over. They look at this petition and they laugh.

It is painfully clear that Activision/Blizzard does not care about their subscriber's opinions or ideas anymore. Gone are the days of the content developers (Tom Chilton, Jeffrey Kaplan, Shane Dabiri, Mark Kern, Rob Pardo) interacting with their loyal fans (Blizzcon? WHAT A JOKE.) “You think you want that, but you don’t” Instead, their interactions are narrowed down to their superiors, the higher ups. They are, simply put, a top down, profit driven, fortune 500 corporation with only their bottom dollar, quarterly revenues and investors at the forefront of their decisions. This shift began to occur leading up to the acquisition by Activision. Blizzard, clearly distraught with thoughts of the future, looked to smooth things over with their investors by merging with the largest grossing/most successful interactive entertainment company in the world. Operations then slowly began to shift from a focus on the subscription based, community oriented ideology to the "pay to progress/pay to win/pay for content" scheme. Although they still collect subscription based fees, they only do it because people are willing to fork it over (loyal fans) - You can verify this by focusing on the fact that they will no longer publish subscription based numbers. Here's a direct quote from them, couldn't be any clearer - "Note that this is the last quarter that we plan to provide subscriber numbers, there are other metrics that are better indicators of the overall Blizzard business performance."

They do not judge the success of their games by this number anymore as they once did, they frankly don't care. They hope the people who pump money into their wallets after the fact (game purchases) will be enough of a reason to continue this sad excuse of a means to a future, and so far, it's working - not just with the World of Warcraft franchise either. It's actually where a bulk of the gaming industry is taking things. This lucrative practice was first brought to light with the monetary gains App Developers were seeing with "In-Game Purchases" in the early days of IOS (Apple OS/App Store) - They could get the seemingly uninterested hooked by handing over their games (for free) and make more on the other end of things by providing paid for content that was almost a necessity to compete or show off. Why do you think they implemented an ability to pay for subscriptions without money by using their in-game currency? They began to realize the profit they were making outside of the subscriptions. My guess is, it has FAR SURPASSED anything they imagined. They are taking advantage of a lucrative business practice. To this I say good for them, bad for us.. Can’t blame em.

Here is something else to mull over that so far, no one has picked up on.

http://investor.activision.com/released ... eID=963972

They issue a C&D / shutdown notice to a threat they've known about for as long as it's existence, a month before the release of their newly revamped/devised (barring subscriber numbers) quarterly earnings report. Coincidence? Maybe.

Thanks for the good times Nostalrius. Thanks for the all hard work and dedication. Thanks for allowing me to relive some of my fondest memories. You will be missed.


Edit: And in case this wasn't clear enough - They will NEVER create legacy servers. They can not apply this lucrative business practice to a game that was never tailored for it.

[Ramage]

I can't disagree. However, it is a detriment to the future of gaming, which has been brought on ourselves by our own need to be "the best." The moment that skill & time was replaced with cash it became possible for people without the time to compete to progress.

I remember this change in stance of the gaming industry coming into effect. Even as someone who doesn't have the time and perhaps cash would allow me to progress further I saw this as a problem for the MMO scene. I believe that what we have lost is the "journey" aspect which has been replaced by "progress."

specifically regarding WoW - back when Vanilla was live i only managed to clear MC with my guild as I didn't have the time to compete with those who did. However, this is my fondest memory of WoW. As i have experienced that I hold on to those values. A lot of people who haven't simply expect to be able to without the time investment. Money talks. If they don't listen to the money, then investment walks. Sucks I know. Perhaps it is in the gamers best interest for companies such as blizzard to be successful, but that's another debate.

However, this is why I believe the petition should hold some merit. Its an indication of money talking. If they listen to the money in this instance then we may end up with what we are hoping for - Blizzard hosted & maintained Legacy servers. I would even settle for community run Legacy servers with the likes of the Nost team voluntarily dealing with the servers. From Blizzards point of view this would indicate not a lot of investment for significant return.

I would simply say the petition is worth a shot.

[Launchd]

I can't disagree. However, it is a detriment to the future of gaming, which has been brought on ourselves by our own need to be "the best." The moment that skill & time was replaced with cash it became possible for people without the time to compete to progress.

I remember this change in stance of the gaming industry coming into effect. Even as someone who doesn't have the time and perhaps cash would allow me to progress further I saw this as a problem for the MMO scene. I believe that what we have lost is the "journey" aspect which has been replaced by "progress."

specifically regarding WoW - back when Vanilla was live i only managed to clear MC with my guild as I didn't have the time to compete with those who did. However, this is my fondest memory of WoW. As i have experienced that I hold on to those values. A lot of people who haven't simply expect to be able to without the time investment. Money talks. If they don't listen to the money, then investment walks. Sucks I know. Perhaps it is in the gamers best interest for companies such as blizzard to be successful, but that's another debate.

However, this is why I believe the petition should hold some merit. Its an indication of money talking. If they listen to the money in this instance then we may end up with what we are hoping for - Blizzard hosted & maintained Legacy servers. I would even settle for community run Legacy servers with the likes of the Nost team voluntarily dealing with the servers. From Blizzards point of view this would indicate not a lot of investment for significant return.

I would simply say the petition is worth a shot.

They don't care about your $15 a month to play on a Legacy server. In fact, that's counter productive for them. They care only about putting the temptation of in-game purchases on your monitor in a way that makes them irresistible. This is now their bread and butter. They can not accomplish this feat with Vanilla WoW. The game was not developed with this business model in mind.. To change or alter Vanilla WoW to incorporate said business model would be perceived as an even worse insult to the community that wants it.

[Ramage]

They don't care about your $15 a month to play on a Legacy server. In fact, that's counter productive for them. They care only about putting the temptation of in-game purchases on your monitor in a way that makes them irresistible. This is now their bread and butter. They can not accomplish this feat with Vanilla WoW. The game was not developed with this business model in mind.. To change or alter Vanilla WoW to incorporate said business model would be perceived as an even worse insult to the community that wants it.

We've already established that money is what they care about.

If legacy servers were to be launched then they would of course be subject to the shop with all its bread and butter. However the core of the gaming experience would be different. Implementing the achievement scheme in vanilla would also be viable. So not only would they have the $15 per month, but additional income as well. Income which is currently not available to them.

I for one would not begrudge Blizzard for changing the vanilla experience in this way to maintain their profits if it means we could experience vanilla in all its glory. Times change, but the core of the game would be the same. I wouldn't mind if we see some shop bought pets etc. in a vanilla legacy server. It sure beats progressing through a private server for it to be shut down when the project becomes popular as Nostalrius has.

I've played other private servers and not being on a low pop server is all part of the flavour of vanilla and partly why Nost stands out amongst the others.

None the less it's worth a shot. The size of the community outcry may hold some sway over their business decisions. Time will tell.

[Launchd]

I remember this change in stance of the gaming industry coming into effect. Even as someone who doesn't have the time and perhaps cash would allow me to progress further I saw this as a problem for the MMO scene. I believe that what we have lost is the "journey" aspect which has been replaced by "progress."

specifically regarding WoW - back when Vanilla was live i only managed to clear MC with my guild as I didn't have the time to compete with those who did. However, this is my fondest memory of WoW. As i have experienced that I hold on to those values. A lot of people who haven't simply expect to be able to without the time investment.

So allowing people to speed pass the content by paying, in your own words, was problematic. That due to this we lost the "journey" aspect. That because you couldn't invest the time, you only got to experience very little of the end game content. Well, it seems in your own words, to implement paid for services side by side with the Vanilla version of their once glorious game, would get rid of the journey and take away from the experience that had us all hooked and I freaking agree.

Example, paying $60 to achieve max level (as you currently can do in their retail version of the game). The "values" of having to level a character would be lost.

I for one would not begrudge Blizzard for changing the vanilla experience in this way to maintain their profits if it means we could experience vanilla in all its glory. Times change, but the core of the game would be the same.

Wait what? Didn't you just say the opposite of this in your previous post? And "all of it's glory" wouldn't be quite the experience if you could pay to have a 60, would it?

[Mryul]

The dumbest thing we can do is nothing at all, or encourage people not to do anything.

[Launchd]

The dumbest thing we can do is nothing at all, or encourage people not to do anything.

I'm not saying do not do anything. I'm simply shedding some light on a topic that people believe is as cut and dry as "If enough people sign this, they'll realize enough people want it and that, if they took on a legacy server project, they can make money."

Changing the laws so we can legally host legacy versions of copyrighted games no longer in use is a much better use of ones resources.

They don't care about the $15 a month. They care about progressing their game in a manor that best suits their business' needs. They can not do this with an old version of the game that completely destroys the business model they have built and are clinging to.

[Mryul]

I respect all opinions but I find it disrespectful to title something "The Petition - Why it does not matter." when people have put so much effort into trying raise awareness

[Ramage]

Wait what? Didn't you just say the opposite of this in your previous post? And "all of it's glory" wouldn't be quite the experience if you could pay to have a 60, would it?

It wouldn't bother me if people wanted to buy instant level 60. I would play the game how I wanted to. If others want to pay for it, then so be it. It's a sacrifice of my values i would make to enable a vanilla legacy server to exist in this day and age. I would indeed be able to play the game in all its glory as I wanted.

Times change. We have to accept this. Its a hard pill to swallow but perhaps neccesary if our dream of a legacy server is to exist.

If blizzard said "OK we're going to sell T1,2 & 3 gear sets and Grand Marshal & High Warlord Titles" then I would completely give up on Legacy servers. Instant level 60 isn't that bad compared to what I just mentioned imho.

[JonasD1]

The petition does matter because it drains attention from the media. I even had a newspaper today which had an article about Nostalrius. A fuckin newspaper, you know those things that have an analog view which you have in your hands written on a sheet of paper. That is why the petition matters.