Crispy™ WoW Rebirth: a vanilla private server

[shihonage]

No server is safe, but some are safer than others.

See 2)

 

[Ulminati]

So what's the consensus on which server is least shit right now? Would prefer either vanilla or TBC. Decent-sized population, 100% (or close to 100%) accurate scripting and PVP turned on is a must. Would prefer no cash shop bullshit. I've a couple of dead dwarves on Nostalrius that need to be reincarnated.

 

[Ninjerk]

So what's the consensus on which server is least shit right now? Would prefer either vanilla or TBC. Decent-sized population, 100% (or close to 100%) accurate scripting and PVP turned on is a must. Would prefer no cash shop bullshit. I've a couple of dead dwarves on Nostalrius that need to be reincarnated.

Rebirth has a modest lowbie population right now from what I saw in Redridge and Westfall.

Kronos' Durotar is positively CHOKED with players. I have a screenshot somewhere of a group of 5 or so people in a ring around the Burning Blade medallion mob (the first group I was in was sabotaged by the player that tagged him, felt some nostalgia for TBC-era edginess). Quest mobs are constantly being farmed--dire mottled boars have been my bread and butter today. I don't know of any good TBC server.

 

[hivemind]

playTBC released after 4 days of delay and complete shitshow from the devs and there is still a 5 min queue at 7 in the morning

 

[Ellef]

so are playTBC hackfrauds or just ill prepared?

 

[hivemind]

it crashed before my queue that fluctuated between at estimate of 2mins and 30 mins managed to complete and now it's impossible to connect


I think they are just a few randoms that wanted to make their own little tbc server who got a lot of undeserved hype and attention after nost got destroyed because they are like only fresh TBC server out there

 

[Metro]

One of you wizards should just make a private Codexian server~

 

[Rahdulan]

You can always take it to the next level and play it singleplayer. Because that apparently exists.

 

[Ulminati]

One of you wizards should just make a private Codexian server~

I actually ran one ages ago, but that was just for a fe wmates to mess around in dungeons with. It was a bitch to configure and maintain too.

 

[Hobo Elf]

A Codex server could be sweet. Too bad it will only remain a dream.

 

[GarfunkeL]

And since there's always those who say "Omg Rebirth was never challenged, it's a ruse!"

Interesting, can you offer some insight or speculation on what really happened to Nostalrius? It seems suspicious that they would simply keel over at the very first sight of a C&D, when many private servers that actually make lots of money on virtual items and services have managed to endure even when faced with legal action.

He can't offer you anything.

Nostalrius had 150,000 active accounts (not players) and regularly 18k concurrent players. So even if we're being highly conservative, there were at least 40,000 players there. Could be as high as 80,000 to 100,000 players. But it's impossible to know for certain. I dunno if Rebirth actually went to court because that link doesn't work for me. But the Nost team made it clear that they didn't just receive a C&D letter from some American lawyer but that Blizzard hired French lawyers to use French copyright law to go against their provider and the team itself, personally.

So what's the consensus on which server is least shit right now? Would prefer either vanilla or TBC. Decent-sized population, 100% (or close to 100%) accurate scripting and PVP turned on is a must. Would prefer no cash shop bullshit. I've a couple of dead dwarves on Nostalrius that need to be reincarnated.

There is nothing really good at the moment. Rebirth and Kronos have plenty of bugs despite what their shills claim. Neither can handle the amount of population that Nost had. Kronos is already suffering under the stress. And if Blizz is serious about going after private servers now, Kronos will be the next to go. Rebirth has 5x XP rates currently and Kronos has a cash shop for cosmetic shit and player-made accounts. Don't play a hunter or warrior on either because charging will drop you through the world and pets are fucking bugged both in abilities and in pathing.

Two seemingly good projects are on the horizon: Crestfall and Classic. Both seem to be well managed projects with solid dev teams behind them and could end up rivaling or surpassing Nostalrius. They should launch later this year but no solid dates. Then there are a bunch of scavenger projects that seek to use the Nost core and database when it becomes public. Nostalrius Reborn is the one that appears most serious about.

Then there's Magic WOW if you prefer PVE, Valkyrie if you want to play with Russians, and 243Vanilla if you want to play vanilla with TBC talents, spells and races - too bad it's in Australia.

 

[Revenant]

I don't really get it why private servers are illegal in the first place. If server software is original - i.e., containing neither code nor content from Blizzard, and that is the case with most noteworthy emulators, which are published under GPL - they are as legal as any reversely engineered software, and there is plenty of such (like Wine, which Microsoft doesn't sue although they most certainly would want to). So, what's left is suing on copyright grounds? But then, why not call your server "Totally Not World Of Warcraft Server (TM)"? They could just avoid copyrighted words on their websites and I doubt there would be anything to sue them for.

 

[Revenant]

copy protected performances

Wut's that?

 

[Wilian]

I don't really get it why private servers are illegal in the first place. If server software is original - i.e., containing neither code nor content from Blizzard, and that is the case with most noteworthy emulators, which are published under GPL - they are as legal as any reversely engineered software, and there is plenty of such (like Wine, which Microsoft doesn't sue although they most certainly would want to). So, what's left is suing on copyright grounds? But then, why not call your server "Totally Not World Of Warcraft Server (TM)"? They could just avoid copyrighted words on their websites and I doubt there would be anything to sue them for.

the scripting and/or programming with respect to the reverse engineered server software may contain copy protected performances which may actionable

It doesn't though. It's 100% custom made and as long as you don't provide information on how to DL a client or host it for DLings any claims otherwise is a legal ruse tactic. That is why Rebirth won, in US of all things and I don't think laws are stricter in France (though I cannot know that for certain).

There's actually not a single court case Blizzard has won against non-profit servers and as far things go, it's 100% legal until proven wrong in court.

As far as Nost in concerned, I don't actually know what happened as my insider in their team quit half a year ago but I reckon, based on my dealings with these earliel that their host leaked out info of their customer and Blizz tried to do a scare-tactic manouver here. It'd have been very simple thing to just take down the server and move it elsewhere.

 

[Mustawd]

They could just avoid copyrighted words on their websites and I doubt there would be anything to sue them for.

C'mon man. Anything WoW is intellectual property. You're telling me a company like Blizzard does not want to retain control of their biggest brand? They don't need random people having access to assets or to a server that recreates a WoW world. And as much as I dislike saying so, they kind of have a point. If I was running Blizzard I'd be extremely nervous that someone has access to that type of brand. All it takes is one deviant to make a romance server where everyone is running around naked. All of a sudden your brand is no longer in your control.

 

[Revenant]

The reversely engineered server in and of itself has exactly zero brand or trademark material. Now if the said server's website didn't use words like "World of warcraft" or "blood elf", it wouldn't have any brand or trademark material too. You cannot sue such a server accepting connections from official WoW clients any more than you could sue Libreoffice for offering compatibility with MS Office files. Though I'm not sure you even know what free software is, newfag, so better shut your mouth and don't get into discussions about topics you have no clue about.

 

[Jaesun]

What about all of Blizzard's art assets for the game?

 

[Revenant]

Art is client-, not server-side.

 

[belowmecoldhands]

You of course void the EULA (end user license agreement) since it requires you to connect to the official servers. But I'm not sure what the legalities are. The only things I can think of which might be actionable are any uses of the words "World of Warcraft" or duplicating quests and content and characters. But if nobody is making money from it...

 

[Wilian]

What about all of Blizzard's art assets for the game?

Assuming the client is not downloadable from the server/by the runner of the project literally zero copyright material is involved.

Easy legal hoop to avoid is just to say that "You must own the original disks to play here". There's no way that can be tracked but you cover your ass in same way as "You must be 13 year old to proceed" on forums. Or 18+ on porn-sites.

 

[Revenant]

You of course void the EULA (end user license agreement) since it requires you to connect to the official servers.

It is the players who violate the EULA, not the server. Although since they're already playing on a private server, there is not much Blizzard can do to punish them except ban them from the official WoW if they somehow found out.

 

[belowmecoldhands]

What about all of Blizzard's art assets for the game?

Assuming the client is not downloadable from the server/by the runner of the project literally zero copyright material is involved.

What about if the server is using the words "World of Warcraft" or copying quests and npcs and other contents? They're using the name... Even if they don't copy quests verbatim (or directly from the server hardware), if they're at least TRYING to duplicate the content, that should be more than enough to try to shut them down.

Given no money is being made, it makes me wonder how far it can really go though.

Commercially, there're things like this:
http://theweek.com/speedreads/452991/heres-song-led-zeppelin-accused-plagiarizing-stairway-heaven

Keep in mind I've played on emulated servers b4, so I'm not holier-than-thou. Many years ago I played on UO player-run servers. Of course, I don't think OSI liked that much. OSI-servers at least could be trusted.

 

[Wilian]

What about all of Blizzard's art assets for the game?

Assuming the client is not downloadable from the server/by the runner of the project literally zero copyright material is involved.

What about if the server is using the words "World of Warcraft" or copying quests and npcs and other contents? Even if they don't copy quests exactly, if they're at least TRYING to duplicate the content, that should be more than enough similarity to do something with it.

That is p. much all client side. It's a bit like you can't sue a creator of music player just because it has play-button.

 

[belowmecoldhands]

What about all of Blizzard's art assets for the game?

Assuming the client is not downloadable from the server/by the runner of the project literally zero copyright material is involved.

What about if the server is using the words "World of Warcraft" or copying quests and npcs and other contents? Even if they don't copy quests exactly, if they're at least TRYING to duplicate the content, that should be more than enough similarity to do something with it.

That is p. much all client side. It's a bit like you can't sue a creator of music player just because it has play-button.

Idk sir. A play button is generic. "World of Warcraft" isn't. It's a trademark (TM).

http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/WoWWiki:Copyright_policy

Copyright is often confused with trademark, which is a registered name or logo used to sell goods or services. In the case of Blizzard, Blizzard™, Warcraft™, World of Warcraft™, and the Blizzard and Warcraft logos, are all registered trademarks used to sell its games and books. No one else can use those logos in the marketplace. Trademark laws protect Blizzards' names and logos, while copyright laws protect its games and books.

But no money is being made, so...

Also this suggests protection for the content in the game:

Copyright is the legal ownership that automatically attaches to creative works. For example, if you were to write a novel in your spare time, you would own the copyright of that novel, and no one else could use its text without your permission. Copyright protects not only the actual text of a novel or code of a computer game, but the characters, plot points, and other creative expressions within.

 

[Revenant]

The server probably uses NPC/quest IDs instead of their names/text to communicate with the client. So, unless the server has to transmit a string like "This is a World of Warcraft server" for the client to function normally, the server people could even make money from it and still be 100% legal.