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Last week, we discussed the upcoming private server Felmyst, its dedication to preserving the Burning Crusade as it existed equally of Patch 2.1, and of the cadre developers' conventionalities that the game should be pristine. That ways it should handle quests, dungeons, raids, experience proceeds, and other facets of the overall WoW feel as they existed in early on 2007, and that the specific goals of other mods, such as minimizing grinds or improving loot tables, would not be implemented on Felmyst.

Fifty-fifty last week, we were concerned that Blizzard might not go for this new implementation, any more than than information technology's gone for whatever of the high-profile private servers — and this seems to have been exactly what happened. Felmyst went live, briefly, at some point on the 21st but was definitely shut downwards via C&D letter past the 22nd.

The Felmyst site owner, Gummy52, has taken downwardly all previous comments and word and replaced them with a single image of a C&D letter of the alphabet and an explanation as to his ain actions.

dmca

End-and-desist level received past Gluey

Gummy writes that his underlying medical status, muscular dystrophy, makes information technology impossible for him to relocate to a country where Blizzard'due south threats of legal action might be taken less seriously. He also says:

Before the release date was alleged, about people expected the server to flounder with a small population… The alert signs to look discover from Blizzard were there simply receiving it that rapidly was something I don't think many expected… The problem with private servers is that there is no middle footing. If people expect a server to "only" accept 3,000 (real) players then they only won't play and you lot'll instead finish upward with 300, which isn't playable.

Basically, Felmyst blew upwards every bit a news particular and attracted the attention of Blizzard long before Gummy wanted information technology to. Whether he could've e'er transitioned the project to a 3rd-party backer entirely outside the reach of the United states of america is open up to fence. Part of his statement suggests one reason he didn't pursue this route is that he didn't want to run a risk helping someone set up their own paid server using his lawmaking. He also states that he will consider releasing some or all of the source code if information technology would be beneficial to programmers "who are still learning."

What We Talk Virtually When We Talk About Private Servers

The problem with whatever discussion of individual servers is in that location are multiple groups with competing interests here. Starting time, you have fans of the archetype game or its various expansions that desire to go back and replay that content for the commencement time, or players that didn't get a run a risk to run into it the beginning time effectually.

Second, you've got the interests of Blizzard, which doesn't want to contribute to a situation that could see some of its longtime player-base jumping back to previous expansions, and doesn't want to feed the perception that WoW should be free. Blizzard too doesn't want to deal with inevitable security issues that will crop up. A group of people having a poor feel on a private server could hands impact perceptions of the base game amidst people who don't understand the difference.

Third, you've got the question of how these servers would function as far as moving players towards new content. Sure, y'all might relish playing and re-leveling a character or two. Only vanilla WoW and TBC weren't great times to be a mid-sized society. With no 10-man histrion variants of 25-man dungeons implemented until Wrath of the Lich King, mid-sized guilds like my own struggled to fill 25-man dungeons. Yous tin deal with this by partnering with other guilds, by leaving to try a full-time raiding lodge, or by patching together a 25-man run out of alts (alternative, i.eastward., not main) characters from other guilds, plus whatever your own lodge can provide. All of these solutions piece of work, to a degree. Virtually of them aren't that much fun. And TBC lacked the fully integrated LFG (Looking for Group) tools that were later implemented in Wrath of the Lich King.

Blizzard's willingness to swing the banhammer on this topic and shutdown an upward-and-coming individual server in less than a day shows the company takes these issues seriously. If in that location are going to exist any servers that focus on before parts of the game, they're either going to be Blizzard-run or not be at all. Every bit for Felmyst, the writing was on the wall for all such server projects when Nostalrius was taken downward. Blizzard has all of the legal precedent and the funds to pay for its own defense of its IP. Yous can believe the visitor is making a mistake by alienating those who would like to meet private servers go a reality, but that'southward not going to change how courts dominion in situations like this.

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