Your own private Azeroth
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
May 30th 2007 at 1:27PM
Recently, a Know Your Lore got kind of derailed by supposed pictures of Kil'Jaeden, Tichondrius, Archimonde and Sargeras from someone's private server. It's hard to say whether the models are "real" or not, just because there's so much you can do on a private server. You can spawn mobs wherever, shrink things, blow things up, wear GM weapons, and teleport anywhere.
Now, officially, private servers are A Very Bad Thing/Illegal/Against TOS. I'm not sure of the exact nature of the wrongness, but Blizzard definitely frowns on this kind of thing. So we definitely don't condone private servers. However, just like account sharing, gold buying and that jerk who constantly camps the rooftops in HFP, private servers are part of WOW culture.
Experiences with private servers seem to vary. Some people I know have tried them and find them lacking. What fun is a game when you can waltz right in and do anything you want? It's cool for about fifteen minutes, and then boring. On the other hand, I've seen the opposite side.
I was able to play on a private "sandbox" server with no NPCs in the BC alpha for about two hours last fall, and while I now admit that that was Wrong and Bad of me, I still had a great time. Playing with the character creator before anyone else, seeing the new Outland zones and guessing what was going to be there, even reading the little notes the GMs wrote on the landscape ... it was awesome. But I don't think I'd do it again -- playing there was too risky, even for a short time, and I don't want bad things to happen to me or whoever's computer I happen to be playing on.
Have you ever been on a private server? What do you think of the concept?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Todd May 30th 2007 1:43PM
It is my belief that the MMORPG will never actually be an RPG until it has reliable and innovative user-created content. Emulator servers are an evolutionary tree of MMOs headed in the direction of user-created content.
The best thing SOE could do to compete with WOW right now (in response to this and a thread below) is to release their creation tools and start allowing trickles of user-created content or to start licensing the engine for user-created servers.
Tigraine May 30th 2007 1:57PM
@1:
I think User-generated content will result in a complete loss of the WoW Experience.
There are a thousand reasons why this may work or not.
But one fact is out there:
At Blizzard there are ppl who get paid huge amounts of money to design quests, npcs, dialogs and rewards.
All those people don't get their money for just sitting around but for real work, things they do get reviewed, polished, re-evaluated, polished again etc.
User generated content will not only result in very poor content (there may come some really cool things from that way, but as with everything 99% will be pure crap), but also in a somehow pointless gameplay (If User-generated quests could reward XP/Faction/Items .. the whole leveling process will change etc)
The only way user generated content may ever work is through contests where you submit your ideas and blizz picks the best and reworks them to fit the game.
(ever tried Ryzom ring? .. it doesn't work)
faceontoast May 30th 2007 2:04PM
Hmmmm!
A server with no gold beggers, homophobes, gold spammers, whiners, random spam invites, and boost beggers, etc?
It sure is damn tempting.
Quoi May 30th 2007 2:29PM
Player generated content is about the worst idea ever for an MMO. Consider this possible quest.
Objectives:
Bring me 100 gold and a Blade of Wizardry.
Reward:
You will receive [Chest of Power].
You open [Chest of Power].
Angry Elite emerges from Chest of Power.
Angry Elite crits you for 18203.
You die.
This is the type of quest the 12 year old asshats that make up a good portion of WoW's playerbase would come up with.
txcroadshow May 30th 2007 2:22PM
I will admit, when I'm at work, I run a private off of my iPod for personal use. I don't make it public, and it's just for something to do while nothings going in the office. It's not the best, and slightly buggy every now and then, and it's pre-BC. But I play on the normal servers when I'm at home, so they're not missing any money from me.
Freehugz May 30th 2007 2:22PM
fun for 15 minutes
Rich May 30th 2007 2:24PM
A buddy of mine set up a private BC Beta server last fall. We played in it for a couple hours and honestly, I had a blast.
We made characters then decked them out and would duel. Then we decided we'd hit all the instances in the game. It was a riot 2 manning Ony and downing her in 4 hits.
You think a 280% mount is fast, try the max speed of 500% of ground movement. We'd set the toons movement to that then race from point a to b.
Then we discovered the kill command. MUHAHAHAHA, the next 3 hours were spent zooming around at 500% speed, trying to get the drop on each other firing off the kill command. Think Halo deathmatch with rockets only on MAJOR crack.
We hop on once and awhile for a 20 min deathmatch, but that's about it.
therationalpi May 30th 2007 2:37PM
I've never played on a World of Warcraft private server. However, I played on Ultima Online private servers for a little over four years. Although the populations on these servers were very small (40 online players or less at a time) they held a great attraction to me. There were so many, and they each catered to a different subset of players.
Most the ones I played on were heavy roleplay servers. The GMs of those private servers were able to strictly enforce roleplaying, and even select the players for their server through application. Not everyone would enjoy that type of server, but because it was private it didn't have to cater to everyone, just the few who were there.
I also played on a few heavy PvP servers for UO. Simply put, I didn't like them, so I went back to my Roleplaying servers. But the Player Killer servers flourished with a crowd that enjoyed PvP.
Thus, I think that private servers have a place and bring something to the table. But they seem to follow black-market economics and occur as a result of a serious hole in the market. As long as World of Warcraft caters to all the subsets of its userbase, I think that private servers will continue to be a very small corner of the WoW culture.
sethosayher May 30th 2007 2:33PM
I think overall that private servers are generally quite lacking...but sometimes they're the perfect ground for innovation in the MMO world...
Jeffrey May 30th 2007 2:45PM
I played on Private servers .. yeah shame on me..
it was the reason i bought the game. Private servers lack everything from good rping to well everything.
SO BUY THE GAME .. all you cheap sheeps.. and i still got my own private server .. just use it as a funny way of trying weapons and stuff
Coherent May 30th 2007 2:51PM
Player generated content (from a shared resource library of assets) is in the future, but we might be a while getting there.
There's nothing bad or morally wrong about playing on a private server. Blizzard says there is, but you can't let giant corporations run your life.
However, private servers are only fun for a few minutes, unless you have an insanely technically adept Dungeon Master who can build roleplaying experiences inside it for you and your friends. Which isn't likely.
Content is meaningful in WoW because it has to be earned, and progress is tracked on incorruptible shared servers that allow you to compare yourself to others. Without that context, it is completely meaningless.
Rynehart May 30th 2007 3:07PM
I have never played on a private server but I would have to say as one who played and DM'd a bit on a user created and maintained Neverwinter nights server that if handled correctly (which in most cases I doubt) a private server could host a better experience than the real world servers.
When I say this I take into mind many of the things that many have complained about in WoW since day one. You could actually make a dynamic or pseudo-dynamic world. Think about it logically, you could have a world where Blood Elves or the Burning Legion actually attacks Shattrath Fortress. Or where a marauding Aramani Trolls attack Silvermoon. On a random basis. You could actually have things make sense. Think of Honor Hold and Thrallamar actually trading NPC raids (there are supposed tob be fighting it out and you have quests that support your respective faction) but you are more of at an armistice then an actual war when you look at it. Where are the invasions the battles, the world events that actually make sense!
Additionally (if possible) you could change the merchants/vendors to actually sell useful/usable weapons and armor. Because for the most part most of them are worthless (less you want to repair).
However, honestly since I doubt there are many private servers that actually are setup to try and create a more realistic experience (why in the world is epic flying mounts so expensive!!!) I would probably never play one. I would just hope blizz gets the idea and possible take some ideas from the community (or just use common sense) and implement them before something comes along that offers more (hopefully Conan the hyborian age) and steels all of WoW's thunder.
Hudson May 30th 2007 3:34PM
Well done Elizabeth, well done. It's nice to see the finished product. :)
txcroadshow, I'm curious. How did it perform on an ipod? Aren't those really bad as far as hardware power is concerned? Maybe you don't need to be running a dedicated server after all...
Super Guest Man 9000 May 30th 2007 3:46PM
You do realize that picture that you're discussing is in fact an image using Warcraft 3 models and not WoW models?
BaronSoosdon May 30th 2007 3:45PM
I use a private server for movie making. I used to be against then but when I saw the possibilites of what can be done on an emulator (or private server), I was like whoa.
It's like having the best of WoW model viewer and WoW map viewer in one place. Merge all of the three and your imagination is the only limitation when making machinima.
But playing on a private server is whole other thing. Those things are nowhere near the real Blizz servers and they lack the most important thing: your guildies. And the mentioned 'easiness' just makes the game lacking.
Then again, hopping on to a flying mount and flying in Azeroth while listening to good music is relaxing :D
Setting up a private server ain't the easiest thing in the world (especially if you're not experienced with computers in general).
UncleChuckle May 30th 2007 3:55PM
Wrong and bad? Gimme a break. Why are software companies allowed to get away with crap no other industry would be? When you buy a coffee table, you don't have to agree to only ever put coffee on it do you? Or not let other people use it? It's absurd.
"If you share this book with someone, you are in violation of the terms of use of this book".
I run my own server. Not got BC sorted yet, simply because no server out there supports BC properly yet. Blizzard can bite me. I paid good money for their damn game. I'll use it how I please. (I live in a country where license agreements aren't legally enforceable. They carry no more weight, legally, than me telling you to not put cups of tea on your coffee table.)
SlowRoasted May 30th 2007 4:17PM
@16, If everyone had your idiotic logic, we wouldn't have MMO's to play.
testify May 30th 2007 4:22PM
@15 That's exactly what I first thought when I saw the image. It sure doesn't even look close to any WoW models.
krizoitz May 30th 2007 4:22PM
I'm not very familair with private servers, but i imagine they could be incredibly useful for guilds to practice on. Think about it, you could run instances and not have to worry about repair bills. You could practice on bosses and immediately re-rez everyone to go at it again, or kill command him and talk about what went wrong. It would be an invaluable tool imo.
Corrodias May 30th 2007 6:03PM
@17 I'd like to point out that, if you READ this thread, you would realize that most people aren't interested in playing on private servers. I wouldn't even consider it because there would be no sense of reality, no sense of accomplishment. I fully support his "idiotic logic", as you call it, but i'm not about to give up on the "real thing".
tldr version: settle down; he's not leading a revolution, here.