Some vanilla WoW fans are so disappointed with Classic that they can imagine a return to the actually illegal WoW private servers. There are even a few promises of a renaissance for privately run realms. Our editor Karsten has a clear opinion on this.
The numbers from August show it : The WoW Classic servers are still very busy almost a year after the release. Nevertheless, I keep stumbling over vanilla fans in the forum and on Reddit who are disappointed with the new edition and claim that the various private servers would convey the feeling of playing more authentically from back then. On Reddit , one of the critics recently even announced a renaissance of privately run (but illegal) realms.
The same things are usually criticized: The level of difficulty is far too easy. Taking patch 1.12 as a base was a mistake. Blizzard just can’t get the bot problem under control. Frequently reported bugs are still in the game after more than a year and the customer support is a bad joke. And for all that you have to pay 13 euros a month.
All these things were solved better on private servers and you didn’t have to pay anything for the service, so the accusation. At the latest when the developers start with the start of Classic The Burning Crusade and then again take the last patch with all the weakening and simplifications as a basis, the community will turn away from Blizzard and go for the authentic dose of WoW on the existing private server alternatives (buy now) : get TBC, so the prediction.
Private servers have no future
I am grateful to private servers like Nostalrius. Because it is only thanks to this offer from WoW nostalgics for WoW nostalgics that we now have WoW Classic. And yes, WoW Classic isn’t perfect, and far too often (and far too often promptly) the developers have made bad decisions – like announcing the EU servers (rather than planning for language servers right away), providing the far too few servers for name reservations or when things got hot on many PvP servers at the beginning of phase 2 and the server transfer options provided completely threw the faction balance on some realms off track.
But as justified as the criticism may be in many cases, we should first state: WoW private servers are illegal. Anyone who creates a character on these servers will always have the sword of Damocles of justice dangling over their heads. It can happen at any time that a letter from the lawyer stops the free service and all progress is gone in one fell swoop. That’s exactly what happened to Nostalrius players in April 2016 .
And you can assume that those responsible for Blizzard will only attack the heads behind successful WoW private servers even more vehemently with the Power Justitias in the future, since they are now raking in a lot of money with their own retro servers.
In addition, some of the private server advocates have apparently forgotten the other downsides of this offer, which certainly exist. For example, I remember stories of community managers and server administrators being bribed by ambitious raids to get a favor or two. There were also bugs in classes and quests, performance problems and spam from gold sellers.
And as far as WoW authenticity is concerned, the tuning on the private servers doesn’t really have anything to do with the reality of 2005 or 2006. On the contrary, thanks to WoW Classic and the values from the reference client for patch 1.12, it became clear that the private servers differed significantly from the original.
In short: From my point of view, private servers by no means offered the better vanilla experience. They were just free, for a long time there was no alternative and somehow also rebellious. Now, however, there is an alternative that is even official and legal, is fun and where you cannot “earn” rare loot through a good or particularly rewarding relationship with those responsible (although: that’s exactly what even one believes or other Blizzard critics looking at big streamers).
And because I’m sure that many others feel the same way, my thesis is exactly the opposite: As soon as there are also classic servers for The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, there will finally be no more reason to have a WoW Setting up a private server and keeping it alive with a lot of effort and time. your time is up. RIP!
What is WoW Classic?
World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.
Getting Started
All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access toWoW Classic at no additional cost.
- Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
- Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
- Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
- Click the Play button when the installation is complete.
You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!
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