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Mark Kern has met with Mike Morhaime re: Vanilla World of Warcraft servers

E

Enter the Dragon Punch

Banned
https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/735978220864999425

So I was going to stream this with @Sodapoppintv but unfortunately family matters prevent him from streaming, so I'll tweet here about Blizz

First, Blizzard and Mike can make NO PROMISES about legacy servers. But, the amount they have been paying attention is incredible.

But first, how about some pictures of the @NostalBegins petition that YOU GUYS SIGNED, being delivered to Blizzard?

Cja5FaRUYAM8PYa.jpg
Cja5FWYUUAEt9SB.jpg
Cja5Fa4UkAA14Mq.jpg
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I promised you that if the petition hit 200k sigs that I would go to the CEO of Blizzard and deliver the petition. I'm proud to say its done

was very happy to be able to fulfill my part...the meeting was an extra bonus, and I can say I'm happy. No promises, but we talked about..

...we talked about everything you guys brought up. We talked about how there are two fandoms in WoW, classic and new, and both vital.

We talked about how you guys wanted vanilla servers, as they were, with few or little changes, esp no LFR stuff etc.

We talked about the surveys and how you guys would absolutely support a vanilla CE with physical and digital goods.

We talked about how I felt bringing a core "first-gen" audience of WoW players would help even the current-gen WoW.

We talked about each and every point you guys brought up. And heres the kicker...

They KNEW EVERYTHING ALREADY. Mike and the WoW team has been paying HUGE attention to this issue.

Mike has read all the posts. He's watched all the videos (even mine, lol). He wanted to tell you HE AND WOW TEAM ARE LISTENING SERIOUSLY.

It was a bigger meeting than expected, I was met by SaraLyn Smith, the Gobal Director cf Community Development who joined us...

She took copious notes during the meeting as Mike and I talked about you guys, the passion for vanilla, etc.

The WoW Team and Mike are paying extremely close attention to this and wanted to let you guys know they are paying a lot of attention.

Also, they were very enthusiastic about meeting the @NostalBegins team. Mike was super impressed with what they and MaNGOS have accomplished

Mike and the WoW team are eager to meet with @NostalBegins and to learn about how they overcame technical issues and got things running.

I can confirm: They have NOT LOST THE SOURCE CODE. But the technical issues are more complicated than that.

Mike and I talked about the technical challenges and I agree that for Blizzard, the challenge is greater than just throwing up a server.

Mike and WoW are committed to a very high level of qualty and polish. That makes everything more complicated when considering legacy.

Mike and the WoW team want to LISTEN to @NostalBegins perspective on vanilla and the technical issues they faced.

Mike says there are no easy solutions to this, but that they are listening very intently and following everything you guys say.

Mike and WoW team are also eager to meet with @NostalBegins and recognized they are GOOD GUYS with PASSION and they love that.

So to sum up, while they can make no promises, they are going to continue to think and regroup and be in LISTEN mode to you guys.

Finally, I'd like to share a pic that shows Mike and I still have a sense of humor after all these years...

Cja_S4gUoAAqdcJ.jpg
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New news, new thread.

Thrilled to see that this meeting went so well! Absolutely great to know Blizz is actually listening - AND that they haven't lost the source code for Vanilla. I am excited to see where this goes. Yeah, there's obviously both financial and huge technical hurdles, but... Everything we're hearing so far is positive. Nostalrius will meet Blizz next month, IIRC? It's going to be interesting... I can only hope the best comes out of this. Not just for Vanilla servers, but for a look towards how the game can benefit in the future from things it used to benefit from in the past. Really love how passionate the WoW community can be.

Sorry about the weird formatting in the quotes, but I was literally 1:1 lifting the content of the tweets.
 
C

CHC

Member
This is all great news. If I had to pick anyone as a champion for this cause I probably wouldn't pick Mark Kern, BUT... you know I have to hand it to him - he did what he said he was going to do, to the last word.

I can respect that. Also had to laugh at this combo:

Cja_S4gUoAAqdcJ.jpg


HE AND WOW TEAM ARE LISTENING SERIOUSLY.
Click to expand...
 
S

Suzushiiro

Banned
People sometimes seem to forget that the people who make WoW are also players of WoW, and if anything are going to trend towards being more serious/hardcore/long-time players of the game (Chadd "Celestalon" Nevrig and Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas were both top theorycrafters before Blizzard picked them up, among many others.) Hell, I'd imagine a lot of them played on Nostalrius themselves.
 
S

Salty Rice

Member
If the ability to play on Vanilla servers gonna be announced it would be huge.

But that would too good to be true i doubt that its gonna happen. If anyone does something crazy like this it would be Blizzard tho.
 
L

LordGorchnik

Member
I feel like the post reflects the exact opposite of what the fandom saw

"They are listening, they've read it all, they've seen the comments, they know you guys want it bad!"

--2 months earlier--

"NO! AND TRUST ME, YOU DON'T WANT IT!"

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
L

Loxley

Member
I'm pretty sure it didn't take the guy wasting all that paper and actually going to Blizz headquarters for them to understand that a chunk of the playerbase wants vanilla servers, they're not morons.
 
E

echoshifting

Banned
partyphone said:
not sure it's super good optics giving time to a gamergater...
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Yeah.

Mark Kern said:
I urge game developers to open their eyes and see what is happening. Your creative freedom is being policed, your voice is being ignored. What more evidence do you need that the press only wants to hear one side? What more?

Perhaps the women suffrage movement or civil rights movement should just have stuck “to their own press” you know, like black newspapers.

Devs, if you are afraid of speaking up, ask yourselves: who has made you so afraid? Now your enemy is clear.
Click to expand...

More.

Not the best guy for Blizzard to bring in to their inner circle.
 
T

Technosteve

Banned
I am old now, I'll sign up if I can pay for VIP service in vanilla wow I want to be carried in all the raid content. Get to roll need on all loot. And weekly world PvP events.

I don't got time to grind.
 
C

Cels

Member
Suzushiiro said:
People sometimes seem to forget that the people who make WoW are also players of WoW, and if anything are going to trend towards being more serious/hardcore/long-time players of the game (Chadd "Celestalon" Nevrig and Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas were both top theorycrafters before Blizzard picked them up, among many others.) Hell, I'd imagine a lot of them played on Nostalrius themselves.
Click to expand...

i know watcher is gurgthock, GM of elitist jerks, what was celestalon's claim to fame in the community before joining blizzard?
 
J

Jockel

Member
partyphone said:
how is it not relevant? Kern is actively involved with a hate group.
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Well first of all, I don't know the guy. So apparently he is considered an asshole (and fair enough, supporting gamergate is a pretty good qualification for that title).
However, the petition itself is a good thing. Blizzard speaking and listening to fans is a good thing. Speaking for me personally, if he doesn't push any of his hateful bullshit agenda, I'm OK with some asshat doing a good deed.
 
6

60EffPeeEss

Member
notworksafe said:
What does the whole concept of vanilla WoW servers and Nostalrius have to do with Gamergate other than this one man?
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Exactly. Its not like supporting vanilla WoW somehow supports that cause, or buffs it up, or even gives it a shred of credibility.

Being so axe-to-grind mental over something just causes even more anger anyway. You can't even start a dialogue with someone if you're going to exile them from all recognition for all time.
 
A

aeolist

Banned
notworksafe said:
What does the whole concept of vanilla WoW servers and Nostalrius have to do with Gamergate other than this one man?
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for my part if the community is looking to mark fucking kern as a liaison with blizzard it makes me think badly of them as a group

he has said and done some really awful shit over the last 2 years
 
notworksafe

notworksafe

Member
aeolist said:
for my part if the community is looking to mark fucking kern as a liaison with blizzard it makes me think badly of them as a group

he has said and done some really awful shit over the last 2 years
Click to expand...

I've never heard of the guy but if I google him I get "Mark E. Kern is an American video game designer best known for being team lead on the video game World of Warcraft". I do not see anything about Gamergate. So I can't blame people for thinking he might be a good guy to talk to Blizzard about something WoW-related.
 
A

Altered Juice

Member
I knew that people were deep into vanilla wow but GODDAMN I never knew it was that serious until I saw the reactions for when the vanilla community server(s) shut down.

Edit: can you guys get that shit outta here?
 
A

aeolist

Banned
notworksafe said:
I've never heard of the guy but if I google him I get "Mark E. Kern is an American video game designer best known for being team lead on the video game World of Warcraft". I do not see anything about Gamergate. So I can't blame people for thinking he might be a good guy to talk to Blizzard about something WoW-related.
Click to expand...

if people are genuinely ignorant then whatever, but i find it hard to believe that a group of the most hardcore wow players are completely unaware of kern's recent activities
 
notworksafe

notworksafe

Member
aeolist said:
if people are genuinely ignorant then whatever, but i find it hard to believe that a group of the most hardcore wow players are completely unaware of kern's recent activities
Click to expand...

I played WoW daily for a decade and I've never heard of the guy even once before now. It's not as hard to believe as you might imagine.
 
A

Afilador

Banned
Riposte said:
Derailing posts don't become thread derails if people don't reply to them and instead focus on the topic.
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how is denouncing his bullshit derailing? this guy has affiliated himself with a horrible bunch and has said awful, hurtful shit in the last 2 years, while Blizzard has publicly denounced gamergate so them affiliating themselves with this guy who's been trying to pander the gamergate crowd for so long isn't doing them any favors
 
D

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
Mentioned it in the OT, but in EQ you have to pay a premium for the classic servers.

I wonder how the Nostralius community would take to that.
 
Z

Zeroneo

Member
Mark Kern is currently lobbying people to boycott a game so the company making it closes letting him buy the IP for cheap. This is not a man you want to support.
 
A

Auctopus

Member
Didn't that dude proudly declare he was pro-GG on Twitter? Also, what a waste of paper bringing that petition to Blizzard in addition to completely missing the point of the "You think you do but you don't" comment.
 
Carl2291

Carl2291

Member
I'll keep my fingers crossed for a Blizzcon announcement. Would be hype.

Please don't hijack this thread with GG nonsense. It's really not needed. Start a new one up if you feel so strongly about it.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
What does that hashtag on the box of signatures mean? I'm not sure but at first glance it comes off as a little assholish and I get that these are passionate fans but you are going to catch a lot more flies at Blizzard with honey instead of vinegar.
 
A

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
HStallion said:
What does that hashtag on the box of signatures mean? I'm not sure but at first glance it comes off as a little assholish and I get that these are passionate fans but you are going to catch a lot more flies at Blizzard with honey instead of vinegar.
Click to expand...

It's a remark that was made on stage some years ago at Blizzcon, when a fan asked if legacy servers were considered and the lead designer replied "You think you want them, but you don't".
 
S

SpiceMelange

Member
Afilador said:
how is denouncing his bullshit derailing? this guy has affiliated himself with a horrible bunch and has said awful, hurtful shit in the last 2 years, while Blizzard has publicly denounced gamergate so them affiliating themselves with this guy who's been trying to pander the gamergate crowd for so long isn't doing them any favors
Click to expand...

Go make a thread about it. Stop derailing this one.
 
S

Sesuadra

Unconfirmed Member
Aureon said:
It's a remark that was made on stage some years ago at Blizzcon, when a fan asked if legacy servers were considered and the lead designer replied "You think you want them, but you don't".
Click to expand...

I hope the guys at blizzard have enough humour to laugh about it >.<"...I hope I can play on a legacy server. would be great.
 
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