Should Private World of Warcraft servers be allowed?

[Thespamanator]

Not sure if this is already on here somewhere, if so then tell me once but don't tell me every other comment =P

For those of you who don't know much about the whole thing, World of Warcraft is an online RPG which you pay monthly for ($15 a month(I think it's around £7.99)) and around 10 million people pay this.
But many people have set up their own servers away from the main Blizzard hosted servers.
They are free to connect to, and are mainly made up of instant level 80 servers, although there are a few that try to be like the blizzard servers(e.g. starting level 1). These servers tend to be lowly populated (-1000 people) and have quite a few bugs.
Blizzard haven't really done much(To my knowledge) to prevent private servers, but what is your opinion? Should they be banned and made totally illegal? Should things carry on as normal? Or should people just pay for the real thing?

 

[bad rider]

I like them, and if you've bought a copy of the game, i think you should be entitled to use them. The only reason you pay fee's is to use Blizzards servers so if you don't it dosen't really matter.

 

[Rednog]

I like them, and if you've bought a copy of the game, i think you should be entitled to use them. The only reason you pay fee's is to use Blizzards servers so if you don't it dosen't really matter.

So all the new content that is released falls from a magical tree?

 

[Thespamanator]

I like them, and if you've bought a copy of the game, i think you should be entitled to use them. The only reason you pay fee's is to use Blizzards servers so if you don't it dosen't really matter.

So all the new content that is released falls from a magical tree?

What do you mean?

 

[bad rider]

I like them, and if you've bought a copy of the game, i think you should be entitled to use them. The only reason you pay fee's is to use Blizzards servers so if you don't it dosen't really matter.

So all the new content that is released falls from a magical tree?

It happens on other games like guild wars. I always thought it was paid for through sales of the game/want for more sales of the game.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Blizzard haven't really done much(To my knowledge) to prevent private servers, but what is your opinion? Should they be banned and made totally illegal? Should things carry on as normal? Or should people just pay for the real thing?

Why would and should Blizzard do anything at all about private servers?

The money you pay goes largely towards maintaining the Blizzard servers, new content has been bought and paid for already otherwise the player wouldn't have it. Blizzard doesn't really lose anything by them and it helps maintain a community.

I also think any PC developer would have to be mad to try and close all the servers it didn't directly control. The time, money, effort and PR shitstorm would far outweigh any benefits.

 

[51gunner]

It's part of the end user license agreement: you can't use their game for your purposes. Even if you're not charging people to use the game, you're avoiding having to pay to play.

I can't for the life of me imagine why you'd want to play on one though, with the sole exception of having GM powers and getting to explore various bits of map that you've never seen. GM Island, old Ironforge, the Stormwind instance you can't get into, the Emerald Dream, the Azshara Battleground... that'd all be neat. Other than that though, having nobody to fight against, raid with, or show off to would suck.

 

[Xojins]

That's like asking whether or not Open Battle.net should be banned from Diablo II. But no, it shouldn't. The private servers aren't causing any problems, so why worry?

 

[Thespamanator]

That's like asking whether or not Open Battle.net should be banned from Diablo II. But no, it shouldn't. The private servers aren't causing any problems, so why worry?

The way some people look at it is that Blizzard is loosing an extra $15 a month for every player that plays on private servers. This might not seem like much, but that's $15 x 12 = $180 per year per EACH person that plays on private servers.

 

[joeychuckles]

i never played on a private server when i played WoW, but i can see how there might be some appeal for people with like minds - exclusivity, say, for people who wanted to play in a controlled environment with a select group, or ban phrases like "wter plz" and "plz giv me sum gold plz." i think there's probably no black or white "good-vs-bad" stance on private servers; there are pros and cons, like any good issue.

 

[Clashero]

I used to play on a private WoW server (called WoW-Arg, it was based in Buenos Aires. On average, there were 500 people online) and it worked almost exactly like the official servers, minus a few things that didn't stack properly. I realized what an awful, terrible game WoW was and went back to me beloved Guild Wars.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

It's kinda like piracy, I mean you use Warcraft to create the exact same world, profit of it, but the game is more shitty(There are alot of damn bugs in private servers...ALOT). The game masters usually just do what they want and don't give a shit if the players have a problem, or just give players armor/levels etc. Not only that, but most servers encourage you to donate so you can get better gear created by the developers of the server...and if you don't then your pretty much fucked since the players who donate will always be better geared.

Warcraft's 15 a month, those donation items you get from...well donating are usually betwen 30-40-60 dollars etc. So your just better of playing the original game.

 

[raunchy]

i see nothing wrong with having a private server for your own sole use if you already have a paying legitimate account. it's also the only sane way to create machinima

 

[D_987]

Isn't the whole point of an MMORPG to play simultaneously with a large amount of people and / or grind?

What would be the point of taking away the two things that effectively make the game?

 

[Thespamanator]

Isn't the whole point of an MMORPG to play simultaneously with a large amount of people and / or grind?

What would be the point of taking away the two things that effectively make the game?

Well many are instant level 80 servers where people who would play retail but don't have the time, or can't be bothered to level up, just go to raid or PvP

 

[Xojins]

That's like asking whether or not Open Battle.net should be banned from Diablo II. But no, it shouldn't. The private servers aren't causing any problems, so why worry?

The way some people look at it is that Blizzard is loosing an extra $15 a month for every player that plays on private servers. This might not seem like much, but that's $15 x 12 = $180 per year per EACH person that plays on private servers.

Sure, you could look at it like that. But really, the amount of money they're losing is negligible, considering their millions of paying members.

Those that play on private servers also don't get to interact with the millions of others that are on the public servers, so they don't get the same experience.

 

[DirkGently]

That's like asking whether or not Open Battle.net should be banned from Diablo II. But no, it shouldn't. The private servers aren't causing any problems, so why worry?

The way some people look at it is that Blizzard is loosing an extra $15 a month for every player that plays on private servers. This might not seem like much, but that's $15 x 12 = $180 per year per EACH person that plays on private servers.

Sure, you could look at it like that. But really, the amount of money they're losing is negligible, considering their millions of paying members.

Those that play on private servers also don't get to interact with the millions of others that are on the public servers, so they don't get the same experience.

Wait, how are they losing money? If you're not using their servers, you're not costing them anything. That's like saying everybody who plays Guild Wars is costing them money because they're not playing WoW.

Also, anybody sane buys their time in three or six month packages. Only idiots pay $15 a month instead of $70 for six months or whatever it is. That's like paying $15 a month for XBL when the yearly cost is $50.

 

[Xojins]

That's like asking whether or not Open Battle.net should be banned from Diablo II. But no, it shouldn't. The private servers aren't causing any problems, so why worry?

The way some people look at it is that Blizzard is loosing an extra $15 a month for every player that plays on private servers. This might not seem like much, but that's $15 x 12 = $180 per year per EACH person that plays on private servers.

Sure, you could look at it like that. But really, the amount of money they're losing is negligible, considering their millions of paying members.

Those that play on private servers also don't get to interact with the millions of others that are on the public servers, so they don't get the same experience.

Wait, how are they losing money? If you're not using their servers, you're not costing them anything. That's like saying everybody who plays Guild Wars is costing them money because they're not playing WoW.

No it's not. WoW is supposed to have a monthly fee in order to play, so playing on private servers for free technically is losing them money. Guild Wars is a completely different game.

 

[GothmogII]

Should it be allowed? Well...Blizzard says no at the moment. And you know, it's their game. That said...isn't it more akin to stealing television channels? That is, you've paid for the set-up and all that but are mooching channels you haven't paid for for free.

Also, they charge barely anything for the basic game. And more you can even download the whole client for free if you're so inclined from their own site via the trial game, after that of course you do need to pay for the expansions, but I'd imagine after being out for some time even Wrath will drop in price significantly. Probably see WoW triple packs going for ?/£/$9-15 etc. pretty soon after that.