Following the forced shut down of the vanilla World of Warcraft server “Nostalrius,” Blizzard has actually teased up the idea of running legacy servers for the fans wanting a more old-school experience in the MMORPG.

World of Warcraft executive producer J. Allen Brack sounded off on the game’s forums regarding the subject of a throwback server for old-school fans:

“We wanted to let you know that we’ve been closely following the Nostalrius discussion and we appreciate your constructive thoughts and suggestions,” Brack said. “Our silence on this subject definitely doesn’t reflect our level of engagement and passion around this topic… We have been discussing classic servers for years – it’s a topic every BlizzCon – and especially over the past few weeks.”

Brack reiterated a point others have made elsewhere: Blizzard is simply protecting their IP by shutting down instances of their game not owned by themselves. He said allowing such a server to exist would weaken their IP, with the company seeing no “clear legal path to protect Blizzard’s IP and grant an operating license to a pirate server.”

The news comes after a fan petition for legacy servers has surged to nearly a quarter of a million signatures, a testament to the original World of Warcraft team lead Mark Kern supporting the idea and petition on social media.

While the Nostalrius server was a modest private server based out of France, Brack said one hosted by Blizzard alongside current versions of the game would present “tremendous operational challenges.”

“So what can we do to capture that nostalgia of when WoW first launched? Over the years we have talked about a ‘pristine realm,'” Brack continued.

“In essence that would turn off all leveling acceleration including character transfers, heirloom gear, character boosts, Recruit-A-Friend bonuses, WoW Token, and access to cross realm zones, as well as group finder. We aren’t sure whether this version of a clean slate is something that would appeal to the community and it’s still an open topic of discussion.”

Brack noted that their development team will continue to listen to fan demand regarding a vanilla server, and even said they’ve been talking with the folks behind the Nostalrius server, saying they hope to continue the conversation in the future.

Would you guys like to see a vanilla World of Warcraft server? Sound off in the comments below!