After being shut down earlier this year, Nostalrius, the fan-made World of Warcraft vanilla server, is reopening with both PvP and PvE servers on December 17th.
The Elysium Project, a group dedicated to restoring the original World of Warcraft to playable form, took over the Nostalrius server after Blizzard took down the original project’s server.
While the original owners had talks with Blizzard earlier this year to bring official vanilla servers, it seems as if those talks have lead nowhere.
If you want more info about the return of this fan-run server, be sure to check out the video above.
Editor’s Note: The Twitter GIF is from the South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft”
Jumanji Joe
December 5, 2016 at 10:57 amBlizzard devs are so far up their own asses they’ll never acknowledge that older wow is the better game.
totenglocke
December 5, 2016 at 11:18 amRemember, just a few weeks ago Blizzard said that they refused to remake the first two Warcraft games because “they’re not fun” (despite constant fan requests for remakes) and they also refuse to drop the always-online DRM from Diablo 3 on PC and insult their fans for constantly demanding it.
Heavily Augmented
December 5, 2016 at 11:19 amOh no, they’ll acknowledge vanilla WoW… with another cease and desist when it favors them to do so.
Uncle Ocelot
December 5, 2016 at 11:23 amAren’t the console versions playable offline as well?
totenglocke
December 5, 2016 at 11:33 amYup, thus proving their claims that “It would require completely remaking the game” to be complete bullshit.
Tubsiwub
December 5, 2016 at 11:46 am“It got shut down before, so let’s simply reopen it. We’re very smart.” ~sincerely, Nostalrius
Valchior
December 5, 2016 at 11:47 amHonestly, FFXIV: A Realm Reborn has scratched my vanilla WoW itch & Heavensward is currently scratching the Burning Crusade one right next to it.
Jumanji Joe
December 5, 2016 at 12:32 pmBlizzard has this childish attitude that they know best even when they’re proven wrong time and time again. If it wasn’t for all the normals that followed the original fanbase before they left blizzard would dead.
Ax
December 5, 2016 at 1:09 pmI bet Blizzard will send a “Congratulations on the re-launch!” letter, oh i meant a Cease and desist or we bring your ass to the court letter.
totenglocke
December 5, 2016 at 1:11 pmI used to buy every Blizzard game on launch day, until they sold out to Activision and started fucking everything up. Now I don’t even look at their games anymore.
Madbrainbox
December 5, 2016 at 1:44 pm….From Russia with love.
Madbrainbox
December 5, 2016 at 1:45 pmThey were bought out by Activision.They didn’t sell out.
totenglocke
December 5, 2016 at 2:19 pmThey had more money than probably any studio and chose to sell to Activision. They sold out.
Madbrainbox
December 5, 2016 at 2:40 pmThey were owned by Vivendi.Vivendi was bought by Activision.
totenglocke
December 5, 2016 at 3:05 pmWhich there was no reason for, seeing how WoW subscriptions alone made them several billion dollars per year. Fuck, WoW alone was probably more profitable than all of Activision. It’s completely illogical why they sold out.
OSad
December 5, 2016 at 3:20 pmSadly, it seemed as if there was a reason.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Entertainment
Remember our friends at Sierra, also owned by Vivendi? In the 2000’s they were already in the dump, going through multiple rearrangements and layoffs. It’s just a theory, but instead of cutting that studio off, Vivendi might’ve seen as an option to sell the company out in an effort to stabilize Sierra out of the red, instead of cutting Sierra off completely. Blizzard was unfortunately just complicit in this, as they were also owned by Vivendi, though not a studio in any sort of financial trouble.
Ironically, Activision almost immediately closed the studio after the merger.
Zero Eternity
December 5, 2016 at 5:24 pmProbably more of that “You think you want it, but you really don’t.” “It just isn’t that good compared to “today’s” standards.”
MachineCultist
December 5, 2016 at 9:55 pmBut FFXIV is nothing like Vanilla.
MachineCultist
December 5, 2016 at 10:00 pmGood. Can’t stand Legion. Worse xpac so far. Need a deeper and more RP friendly game.
Madbrainbox
December 5, 2016 at 10:14 pmYeah you’re right.They should’ve bought their freedom a long time ago but they didn’t and I don’t have a clue why.
Uncle Slick
December 6, 2016 at 12:25 pmI went back to play vanilla WoW after playing WoD.
The lack of all the quality of life things really breaks anything older than Cata.
That, and no Transmog is a no go.