Key Points
The new expansion for World of Warcraft, Battle for Azeroth releases today.
I have played World of Warcraft since 2006 and have enjoyed the Classic/ Vanilla version the most.
Today there are several pirate Classic/ Vanilla servers to choose from, however Blizzard has announced plans to implement Classic / Vanilla servers soon.
It is my opinion Blizzard will not release Classic/ Vanilla WoW until player fatigue from the current expansion hurts subscriber numbers.
August 13, 2018, (Today) the latest WoW expansion will launch. Battle For Azeroth. (BFA) It is because of the latest expansion, I am writing this article. I have enjoyed playing World of Warcraft (WoW) since 2006. However, for me personally the best experience I have enjoyed during the last 12 years has been the original version of WoW, affectionally known as Classic or Vanilla WoW.
There have been several pirate servers established in response to the progression of the original World of Warcraft. The current version of World of Warcraft has six different expansions with each expansion bringing changes to the original game and content including but not limited to increase in character levels, talents and playable areas. The desire for gamers to feel the game as it was originally intended made it possible for these pirate servers to recreate the Vanilla WoW game. These servers replicate every nuance of the original game and its content. For a bit of history the first vanilla server was Nostalrius. This was an American server which had to shutdown when they were sued by Blizzard for copy-right infringement. When this happened players took their characters and commited character suicide by jumping off a cliff near. See the below picture.
But prior to shutting down, the creators of Nostalrius, gave their source code to not only Blizzard but also anyone online who wanted to re-create their server in foreign countries. The result was that several other Vanilla servers spawned out of the legal copy-right jurisdiction of American law. It should also be mentioned that the creators of Nostalrius had meetings with high level Blizzard executives about implementing Vanilla/ Classic servers but it seemed nothing came of these discussions. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-06-09-nostalrius-team-meets-blizzard-and-says-company-wants-legacy-wow-servers
In 2017, Blizzard announced they were going to re-create the Vanilla/ Classic server experience. In the attached article by PC gamer, Production Director, World of Warcraft, Larry Brack stated "We're going to hire people, specifically for this job, and we are going to staff it with people who are interested in bringing back Classic WoW in the best, most authentic way." https://www.pcgamer.com/this-is-how-blizzard-plans-to-finally-bring-back-vanilla-wow-servers/
Bringing the article full circle, because of the launch of the latest expansion, BFA. It is my opinion, we will not see Vanilla/Classic WoW until at least August 2019. The reason for this is typically subscriber numbers from previous expansions decrease after launch following one year. https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/5063-WoW-Down-to-5-6-Million-Subscribers As most gamers repeatedly play through the content, fatigue will start to set in, and the newer content's novelty of the expansion is worn off. However, the addition of Vanilla/ Classic servers being implemented during the time frame when the subscribers tend to fall off would add to the chance for an increase or sustaining in subscriber numbers without having to release new content.
I find it very hard to believe that Blizzard would have difficulty implementing and placing together Classic/ Vanilla servers when multiple independent servers have been created and run relatively price effective compared to their own newer product. My evidence again is the source code has already been provided to them and Blizzard had meetings with these individuals responsible at Nostalrius. (In my opinion again they may have even hired some of these individuals from Nostalrius to work on Classic/ Vanilla, but this again is my speculation only as it fits with the timeline.) There may be some updating and compatibility issues to fix but these should not be a problem for the company to resolve.
It is therefore, my opinion that Blizzard will release the new Vanilla/Classic servers no earlier than August of 2019, to have possible growth in subscribers or at least sustain subscriber levels without issuing new content following the usual subscriber fatigue associated from the current expansion which will then be a year old.
I enjoy playing World of Warcraft and so far have really enjoyed the pre-expansion changes especially the PvP. I look forward to playing the new expansion, which launches today (August 13, 2018) and will continue to wait for Vanilla WoW to be released.
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