Thread title: Blizzard should consider official custom WoW servers and a real Classic+ platform

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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The popularity of projects like Ascension and Conquest of Azeroth should be treated as valuable market feedback.

Whatever anyone thinks about private servers legally, the player response shows that there is a large audience for a more ambitious version of Classic WoW—new classes, new builds, expanded zones, redesigned content, and more freedom to experiment inside the original-style world.

Blizzard has every right to protect its intellectual property, but shutting projects down without offering an official alternative wastes an enormous opportunity.

Blizzard could create an official custom-server system where:

  • Players need an active WoW subscription.

  • Custom realms are accessed through Battle.net.

  • Custom characters remain completely separate from official servers.

  • Approved creators can build new classes, quests, raids, zones, rulesets, and progression systems.

  • All purchases go through Blizzard, with Blizzard taking a percentage.

  • Blizzard controls security, moderation, anti-cheat, and content approval.

  • Popular community concepts could potentially inspire future official Classic+ content.

Other games have benefited enormously from modding and community servers. WoW has one of the most passionate and creative communities in gaming, yet players are only allowed to modify the interface while nearly every deeper form of creativity is prohibited.

It is frustrating to see a small independent team create dozens of imaginative classes and systems while Blizzard, with vastly greater resources, remains extremely conservative with Classic development.

This is not an argument that Blizzard should ignore copyright infringement. It is an argument that Blizzard should recognize the demand that these projects have revealed.

Many players do not want another temporary season with a handful of ability changes. We want an ambitious Classic+ experience that expands Azeroth while preserving the slower progression, social structure, atmosphere, and RPG identity that made original WoW special.

Blizzard could fight the community’s creativity, or it could provide a legal platform for that creativity and profit from it.

Please consider an official custom-realm ecosystem, or at minimum, a far more ambitious permanent Classic+ project.

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NO they shouldnt

and they never ever ever ever ever EVER EVER will do that

Now go away and dont be a dumb troll poster

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This will not happen. Any and all monies generated will go to ABK/MS. To believe they would allow otherwise is fantasy.

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I’ve been asking for officially licensed private servers for years now. This game is successful so long as you have enough people to clear the content. Let people create the communities and have the experiences they want.

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“Do not touch the multi billionarie company”

We gotta get an world editor some day, housing is the first step.

Something like V rising should be great, You can host your own server but You need to Buy the Game and use your own hardware.

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Cezar has posted a few times a path towards this. Others (like you) have as well. The big no-no and why Blizzard seems to suddenly swoop in on pirates is to protect their investment. Not just the misappropriation of IP but making money off that property – unless licensed.

So yes licensing could make sense but perhaps not until other means of monetization have been exhausted. And even then I wouldn’t expect the company to relinquish the amount of control opie thinks is reasonable.

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The biggest takeaway from projects like Ascension and Conquest of Azeroth isn’t that they exist.

It’s that they proved something.

For years, many of these ideas could be dismissed as “forum wishlists.” They aren’t wishlists anymore—they’re validated demand.

Whether Blizzard agrees with every design decision is almost beside the point. Players have already shown they’re hungry for deeper class fantasy, more customization, expanded progression, and a more ambitious version of Classic.

That's the part I hope Blizzard doesn't overlook.

I’ve seen enough large organizations to know there’s a moment when customer feedback stops being treated as suggestions and starts being treated as market evidence. Once that line is crossed, the conversation is no longer, “Should we build this?” It’s “Why did someone else prove the demand first?”

Classic+ isn’t competing with Vanilla anymore.

It’s competing with everything players now know Azeroth can be.

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Until pirate modders decide to push Blizzard/MS by playing within the system to allow licensed custom servers, some of us will continue to point/laugh at shooting fish in a barrel. Follow along the fun with Blizzard!

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73480810/blizzard-entertainment-inc-v-derek-s-powell/

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Turtle WoW was more popular by intrinsic design BY the very community you seem to think all want what you want. Turtle WoW is what people want classic+ to be, Conquest of Azeroth only solidifies the demand for classic+

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Private servers aren’t the endgame. They’re market research.

They’re proof that unmet demand doesn’t disappear—it finds another home.

A similar Example of this: Palworld wasn’t Nintendo’s problem because it copied a formula—it was proof that players will embrace alternatives when they feel a gap isn’t being filled.

The real threat isn’t a private server. It’s the studio that studies the gap, learns what players are asking for, understands why players leave and creates the next evolution without needing Warcraft’s name.

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There’s really only one studio( at Riot) that’s actually making a new MMO, and that one is tied to a popular IP anyway. Who are you thinking of in particular when you say this?

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Riot is the obvious elephant, but the real threat to industry giants rarely comes from another mega-publisher. It comes from agile teams capturing the trust that AAA studios bleed.

Look at the data:

  • Project Ascension proves there is a massive, ravenous demand for a “Classic Plus” experience that Blizzard leaves untapped.
  • Warframe proved a passionate free-to-play model could thrive while Destiny 2 bled its player base by prioritizing monetization over consumer needs.
  • Palworld and Helldivers 2 didn’t need a multi-billion-dollar IP to shatter industry records—they just filled a massive gap the market leaders ignored.

Historically, ex-Blizzard devs already proved they can steal the crown when they left to build Guild Wars (ArenaNet) and Marvel Snap (Second Dinner). The next genre evolution won’t be a 1:1 replica of WoW from a massive studio. It will be an agile team that weaponizes the exact community feedback, passion, and modernization that corporate leaders are currently dismissing as “niche.”

…Anyway, I need to go touch grass and remember I walked away from the corporate suit life so I wouldn’t stress over unmitigated market risk for free! :joy:

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By the way, speaking of guild wars, I had forgotten that guild wars 3 is on the way as well! When I responded to you, I thought you were speaking about MMOs specifically. I don’t really think we’ll really see a small team able to do that, personally. There is absolutely room for that in other genres, definitely. Funnily enough, the OG runescape was an indie game as well, so it’s not unheard of.

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:100:
In agreement.

The more I read these discussions, the less I think the private servers are the actual story.

I think they’re just exposing demand that was always there.

I’d be surprised if every MMO studio already working on something wasn’t taking notes! :eyes:

Going to be an interesting few years. :sweat_smile:

EDIT: Never mind… it has already begun. :sweat_smile: The Turtle WoW devs have formed their own studio and are working on a brand-new IP.

Honestly, not surprising. After years of building content and gaining that kind of experience, it felt like only a matter of time. I wish them the best! With all the industry layoffs and so much talent suddenly available, Moonwhisper Games might not even need luck.

Makes me wonder how long before Ascension stops building Warcraft… and starts building the next Warcraft.