Blizzard Explains World Of Warcraft Server Shutdown, Takes Stand Against Piracy

Video game developer Blizzard Entertainment has finally released an explanation on why they shut down Nostalrius, a World of Warcraft fan server, last April 10. It highlighted that piracy is still illegal and should be stopped.

Kotaku reported that World of Warcraft executive producer J. Allen Brack explained in a battle.net forum that the decision to remove Nostalrius was done to protect Blizzard's rights. "The honest answer is, failure to protect against intellectual property infringement would damage Blizzard's rights. This applies to anything that uses WoW's IP, including unofficial servers," Brack added.

The company decided to speak out on the issue after gamers requested Blizzard to reverse their decision. Nostalrius creators earlier explained that they were instructed by Blizzard lawyers to take down the server earlier this month.

Brack's statement also said that their earlier silence on the decision does not mean that they were not hearing the comments and suggestions of the players. "We hear you. Many of us across Blizzard and the WoW Dev team have been passionate players ever since classic WoW," he added.

The World of Warcraft executive producer said they have looked into other options to create servers but noted that this takes time and proper planning. He noted that they are also challenged to integrate classic servers for the game.

Discussing the plans of the Blizzard, Brack mentioned in a Polygon report that they are talking about plans of adding a "pristine realm." This will reportedly turn off the leveling acceleration for character transfers, bonuses, character boosts and tokens.

"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," he added. It was also mentioned that Blizzard is also talking with the people behind the Nostalrius.