Despite all the "Illegality" of Private Servers, the most obvious reason to not even Start there is very Logicial:

In an MMORPG you invest alot of time, and with that time you create your Characters, you are "proud" of them, you may even "love" them.

Now when using Private Servers, that "Precious" you have is unsafe to a degree that can't be described.

There are many Factors that contribute to that unsafety:

- It's Illegal,so it can get busted
- Most Owners are not 100% commited, so they might shutdown the server sometimes
- Owners may face financial problems (Bandwith costs for their servers)
- Mostly they don't have any serious Backup/Firewall/Anti-Virus Protection ,to protect the Servers
- If the Software starts working, for some Reasons (Bugs, DB is messed up etc.) ,they hardly can manage to solve it.

Apart of that ,you might find more "strange" guys playing on those Servers, then on the legal ones, and the general Experience just won't be the same.

It's also an environment very harrassment and personal attacks may be more of an issue then on the legal servers.

So all that Mess, and the Unsecurity of your "Work" should not really make anyone to go Private.

And if someone can't afford it ,i wonder how they can afford to have a PC and Inet-Connection at all ;)

Also for Testing out, there are Free Guest Accounts.

And Blizzard is really carying about your Characters, and that's a good reason to pay them...

Nonetheless, Blizz could lower a bit the Monthly costs, as much Subscribers they have now ;)
 

- If the Software starts working

correction: starts not working (of course)
 

Gah! Why can't people stop abusing the term illegal?

Private servers are clearly against the ToS you agree to when you install the game. However EULAs and terms of service are just contracts, and quite often not even enforcable contracts, not law. Blizzard can't make anything illegal by stating it in their terms of service. What they can do is ban your account, but I find it highly doubtful that they'd be successful in suing someone for setting up or playing on a private server. The fact that Blizzard haven't attempted such a lawsuit is a clear indication that they are well aware of this fact.

This is irrelevant to the question of wether or not private servers are any fun though. Personally I see no point in them, apart from maybe tusing them to try and understand how some of the more obscure game mechanics work. Otherwise they just seem a bit pointless.
 

The only reason I could see as usefull with private servers is if you consider them as a sandbox. And so if you use them to build your own scripted events for a small audience of friends.

But for that isn't better to go buy NeverWinterNights2 ?
 

..This is quite funny,

Believe it or not I started a search on the internet few hours ago because I was curious about this subject (private wow servers) and exactly like you I discovered a huge world of home made servers for the Blizzard game. I was astonished. I have been playing WoW regularly for 2 years with my girlfriend and we were casual players. We both quit recently for two main reasons: Time sinking and the fact we were starting to approach the endgame (70) where we felt we didn’t have the time commitment to enjoy the “hardcore” content. We are both happy about the decision we took and still looking forward to major changes that would lead us back in the game.

However the point is. shall we ever be able to even have a glance at that endgame content?? I mean, let’s suppose after the WoTLK Blizzard decided to fix the mid game and improve some playing mechanics. I would gladly rejoin but some endgame content would remain off-limits for us. Now my idea was to try to build a personal server (I am not at all a computer guy and it sounds very difficult to me) for us (me and my girlfriend) just to have a look at things that otherwise we would probably never see…. Of course riding the Black Temple, for example, or Naxx with mates on a normal server is different but still and gives you the feeling of having accomplished something, but I hate the idea of not being able to at least look at it, explore it once, and enjoy the good work the graphics and designers have made….

I do not really I think I’ll bother with the online free servers. They are just utterly unbalanced (I personally use the “god” mode when I am desperate in some games but playing the entire experience that way would drag away all the challenge and the fun) and full of annoying bugs plus a persistent absence of people which, I agree with you, are 99.9% of the fun.

cheers
 

I have a question: Could a private server be useful to a Guild learning to tackle new raid content for the first time? Instead of wiping multiple times in order to learn the tricks and traps of a new encounter the guild could learn th encounter in one sitting with some kind of invincibility cheat turned on.

I know this would spoil the game for many players but as I understand the mentality of the "high end" uber guild downing a boss first before the competition is the main objective and anything which helps that would be appreciated.
 

Well, to me a lot of people in WoW approach Endgame not like a progress of personal achivement but like a sightseeing tour. Doesn't it dawn on them that running the NY marathon is in no way compareable to just driving up to the end point. "Seeing" Naxxramas is as interesting as flying to the Mt.Everest in a Heli. You stand there and ask you self "is that all? thats what 40 people need six months to get to?" and the answer, that you don't see, is "the six months of playing, with friends, THAT is the price .. not the been there, done that" ...

--mike
 

Gah! Why can't people stop abusing the term illegal?

Private servers are clearly against the ToS you agree to when you install the game. However EULAs and terms of service are just contracts, and quite often not even enforcable contracts, not law. Blizzard can't make anything illegal by stating it in their terms of service. What they can do is ban your account, but I find it highly doubtful that they'd be successful in suing someone for setting up or playing on a private server. The fact that Blizzard haven't attempted such a lawsuit is a clear indication that they are well aware of this fact.

I am not a lawyer, but I have to disagree with that assessment. What you are saying is that if I never open an account with Blizzard, I have no contract with them, and thus I can set up a private server for WoW and Blizzard would be unable to do anything against that. Sorry, but no, the real world doesn't work like that.

The reason why it is illegal to set up a private server is not your contract with Blizzard, but the copyright protection laws of the country you live in. I don't see how you could set up a private server without stealing intellectual property from Blizzard, and I'm pretty sure the law sees it the same way.

If Blizzard doesn't go after private servers that is probably for the same reason why the record companies and Hollywood studios haven't sued you yet for all the pirated music and video on your harddrive: It costs more to catch you and sue you than the value of the stuff you stole. Plus it makes for bad publicity. Stealing intellectual property is hard to prove and hard to pursue, but that doesn't make it legal.
 

@mbp
I have a question: Could a private server be useful to a Guild learning to tackle new raid content for the first time?

for what I have understood the short answer is no. Setting up a private server means using an emulator that specify the rules of the world you are in mimicing Blizzard's (damage calculations, buff percentages.. and all the math that runs behind the graphic). It will never be the same experience as many of these rules are only known by Blizzard. Incidentally I think (but I might be wrong) that this one of the the reasons all the private servers have rulesets that at best are similar to Blizzard's. So it will always be a diffeent experience hence the impossibility to "train" on hard istances and quests. It would allow you though to to look at the graphic/design of the places in azaroth which is indeed stored in the WoW copy you have buyed.
 

The record industry does go after people pirating music and movies though. The risk that they would go after me is miniscule, but they still try and go after a few downloaders, to set an example. Blizzard haven't even done that, and I doubt it is because they are unable to locate any private servers.

As for leagality. Here in Europe the only option would, in most jusrisdictions, for Blizzard to try and shoehorn private servers into being seen as a breach of article 6 in the EUCD, about copyright protection measures. I think it's highly doubtful that'd they'd be successful with that.

Also, when setting up a private server I assume that you are using a copy of the game that you have purchased from the Blizzard legitamately, and not a pirated version. In that case you are not "stealing" copyrighted information. You are making use of a product you own. The fact that the EULA claims you only have a license to use the software means little, at least here in Europe.

The issue isn't cut and dry. IP law is a damned mess at the moment. However simply saying that private servers are illegal is, at best, a gross oversimplification, and I'd go as far as saying that it probably downright false.

I'm not writing this because I'm some advocate of private servers btw. I see little point in them. I just get annoyed, because I happen to be a lawwyer (well, beaureucrat at the moment) and sloppy use of the term illegal is a bit of aa bugbear.
 

I recently had a comment from a 'passer-by' reader on my blog suggesting that I play on a private server but I never gave it a second thought.

MMORPGs are about the people that get hooked up in it & the 'society' that the create playing on a server together.

The server I have been playing on recent suffers none of that social involvement & so is easy to walk away from when a breaks needed.
 

One small point.

Killing Hogger at 70 has limited entertainment value, but getting your own back on him by punching him to death to get you mid-30s unarmed skill up does provide several minutes of sheer fun!
 

Unfortunately many of the servers that opened near TBC release are like private servers in that noone groups to do instances in the lover levels.

A private server is nothing like blizz, even if they use blizz rules because boss events are not fully scripted and therefore most do no magic. therefore you have the graphic of the end boss, but all he does is punch. It is slightly entertaining but not really "fun". The only real fun you can have on one is getting raid gear you would never get otherwise, or some rare drop mount like baron's or raptor from zg. I would say its not worth the time at all unless you just want to see how games are programmed and work on it from that point of view while killing time waiting on a new MMO or WoW expansion.
 

Actually, the Shards of Dalaya server for EQ has a sizable population and hundreds of players during primetime. The server is stable and the rule changes seem well reasoned. I was very impressed by my short time in SOD and if you're looking to enjoy classic EQ, you might be impressed by what they've accomplished.
 

Good for seeing all the content whenever and however you want, I'd imagine.
 

Isn't all the scripting somewhere in your client, though? Why can't people just pull the necessary data from there?
 

I would love to see all the endgame content, if a private server allowed me to do so I would do it. Im sorry but I have already invested way to much time into WOW, I dont have the time or money to do it again. Would you have rather never seen this part of a game than not earn it? Not me.
 

I played on a private server on and off for about three weeks, so here's what led to it and what I thought of it. My husband and I played WoW since the beginning. My husband in particular was a hardcore raider, but by this spring he was burned out from raiding and the changes TBC made. I was getting bored too and our playing dwindled down until eventually we decided to cancel our accounts. Soon after though my husband looked up those private servers and decided to check them out just to see what it was all about. He had fun, and got me to go in there with him too. What did we like about them? We got to see lots of things we'd never seen before. We went to the infamous "GM Island". Went through Black Temple, Hyjal. Every mob in the game dropped many more items, much higher amounts of gold, and a ton more XP. It took about three hours to level a character to 70. There were vendors set up where you could buy items for a profession if you had one, and a Tier 3 vendor. The biggest thing I got out of it was being able to try out different classes at level 70. It was fun to see what they were like at the level cap, and I learned a lot about what I liked and didn't like. In the real game, I played a priest and never could swallow the idea of levelling another character all the way. Without having messed around on a private server, I never would have known that I actually really enjoy playing a feral druid and for healing I liked playing a paladin. That particular server took out all the grinding of everything, and it was refreshing. The "GMs" also held server wide events for everyone that were usually fun. What were the downsides? Boredom has to happen at some point. It's fun in the beginning to see and do all the things you never did before, but of course that's not going to sustain you too long. There are MANY, many bugs. Server crashes and wiping of accounts, so you have to start over. Probably though the most annoying thing for me wasn't the game but the people in it. You think naked night elves and blood elves dancing on your city's mailbox is annoying? Imagine a server with a hundred or two people like that. Interestingly, the VAST majority of players on these servers are about 13 years old and have never played real WoW before. They act immature and dumber than a box of rocks. It was painful for me to read the chat in the main channel everyone was in, it was nothing but stupidity and whining. The thing is though, the mentality on those servers is different (discounting the teen and pre-teen angst of course). No one's playing it in a serious manner like you do in real WoW. Anyhow, after about three weeks or so my husband & I had our fill of it and stopped playing there. Coincidentally, friends convinced up to reactivate our "real" WoW accounts recently, so we did. It was nice to take the knowledge I'd gained from playing other classes to choose a new character to roll.
 

Isn't all the scripting somewhere in your client, though? Why can't people just pull the necessary data from there?

I think scripting must be server based, because of lag issues. You don't want 40 people in an Onyxia raid all see Onyxia go into the second phase at 40 different times.

I would love to see all the endgame content, if a private server allowed me to do so I would do it.

I haven't tried it, but as far as I understood it, you can only see a feeble shadow of the endgame content. You can make a level 255 character on some of them, and that is easily enough to solo all raid bosses. But with the above mentioned lack of scripting you only get a raid boss acting as stupid as an ogre, and then you easily kill him solo. That is far, far, far away from the experience a full raid has on a real server trying to kill the same boss. Basically you only get to see how the raid dungeons look, you don't experience how they would play on a real server.

Sorry, I'm not going through all that hassle to check what kind of wallpaper Illidan has decorated his lair with.
 

Ultima Online has a very popular private server with an online max of 4,500, and a nightly average of 1,000 players. The world is populated and you can hardly walk down the road without getting PK'd (good times).

The reason most people play there is not because it's free, but because of the old rule-set. Ultima Online stabbed itself in the foot when it started turning PvP into gear-based trash. It's nice to play the game as you remember it, and not as what it's become.
 

I started my WoW career on a private server, I was one of the GM's running the server events and I generally enjoyed the game. I think it would be an excellent marketing trick of Blizzard to allow private servers, as it would be a free trial with much lower level of detail...

Since the private I was in disappeared -as happens to majority of the privates- most of the core people that I know of that server have joined the paying players. FOr us it seems that the knowledge and feel of the game received on a private has made us to appreciate the official version more, as we have seen the lack of certain aspects of the private server.

I agree that they have huge lag, bugs and missing scripted content, but they are free. And once you have tasted the real thing there is no going back...

Copra
 

yeah but Tobold you already got to see a lot of endgame content, I have basically seen none of it, the farthes I got was Lucy in MC and thats it! Maybe its dumb but I think it would be cool to at least see the bosses rather than just look at pictures of them.
 

Tobold, you're simply wrong about the "legality" of private servers. There's nothing illegal about them, they simply violate the terms of service that Blizzard has established and the only recourse that Blizzard has is to ban your account. Please take a look at the Ultima Online private shard community for an example of how these servers have thrived for the past 7+ years.
 

Get me a Blizzard lawyer stating that reverse engineering their server program isn't a breach of copyright, and I'll believe you.
 

Just to put in a plug for the private servers. I have been playing on one for the past week. (In between paydays and my 60 day game card ran out, and needed a fix) I have been playing commercial for about 2 years, and I can tell you that I have had as much player interaction on the private server, as I have on Blizzards servers. Its actually a blast. And its not god mode all the way through, unless you run your own.

You level up much faster. In a week I am already 63. and this particular server has cool perks that other servers may or may not have, such as .5 epic available for any level. I was lvl 5 running around with full tier .5, which made things easy up until about mid 40ish.

Oh and free epic flying mounts to every n00b. Its a blast. You can fly over the opposing factions main city, cherry pick another player to PVP gank, drop off your mount and catch em off guard. Its a riot. I got ganked that way about 40 lvl 70s yesterday, all dropped off their mounts at the same time, like outta a black helicopter, while I was in elwyn all by myself. It was the best. So for all you folks that think you will be playing all by yourself, you just havnt found a decent server.
 

Thing with private Servers is that there are many different configurations available. You might like the experience of spending 20 days in hour to level a toon to level 70 but others dont have that time to invest in wasting their life doing so. I have played the game for about 1.5 years now and just got sick of all the drama caused 20-30 cry babies about loot even when a stable loot system is in place. Ive gotten pretty far in the game but like a lot of you guys said..some of the encounters arent balanced. I was able to clear SSC and 3/4 in TK but that damn Kael fight has gotten to everyone and the guild had to disband just because of one encounter. We are all skilled players but that fight is just BS and even if it will be nurfed in a patch i dont care for the real game anymore.

Ive taken pleasure in setting up a private server for my friends only to go in lvl very quickly, dont have to waste hours farming for mats, and still be able to play with all my Real life friends who are all split up on the real servers.

I admit its a bit of work, but i got a way bigger satisfaction knowing setting a fully functionnal server and working out the quirks to make everyone happy. Scripting the encounters is tricky and i can now understand why it takes Blizz so much time to get those encounters stable enough for public release. Ive scripted a few encounters using DB stuff and script that already exist on the web ...even though theyt are hard to find...but doing so made me learn so much about actual useful stuff than most of you players out there who spend 25-30 hours week raiding or being pooled outside an instance door just to get a little piece of epic loot.

I agree that some private servers are just badly managed and money scams for you to get to pay for custom legendary weapons...but i do it to play with friends. The people that want to do it just to get to lvl 255 and solo unscripted bosses to get loot are just..well...people that got sick of the same crap i had to deal with but dont want to bother even learning the back end of how wow is managed (in a way since its not EXACTLY the same).

Ive been working on a VB program that lets you configure scripts for bosses but its not going to well for now since i do also have to learn VB now...im more C++ but whatever ill manage.

SO, like i said im doing this for my own personal knowledge and this keeps me interested in game just in a different way. Who knows maybe ill get a job at Blizzard LOL. I try to make the encounters fun and as close to the real thing. I mean its still fun going in Kara and doing it 5 man...You cant solo it since some fights are a bit too hard and i put the lvl cap at 100..maybe ill put it 125 who knows...thats what is great. I can change anything...

Ok enough of my blab. I understand all you people who are playing on private servers with very little satisfaction. If you want to have some fun try and set one up...and learn to customize to fit your needs.

Remember its only a game. There are many different ways to enjoy it. I just dont believe in paying Blizz anymore to not be able to see the content that we should all be able to see if certain requirements are met of course...but there to say you have to kill the 2 last bosses of SSC and TK to get into MH is the downfall of many guild these days. There should still be a keying process...just maybe less hardcore that that

My 2 cents...sorry for the long post

Nao
 

I've played wow - right up till level 68 on a hunter - but when i couldnt make money and i had never raided before i hadnt seen anything. I spent so much time (about a year) leveling to 68 and i hadnt even seen anything that made me say to myself 'so this is wat im paying for'.

But then my friend got me into a really good private server called WoWscape - helpful GMs fast XP, drops, etc and it rarely lagged and there were no character wipes or none of that. I got to 70 in about 3 days (because i was mostly settling in and looking around) and got full T6 and warglaives in abbout a month. Then I went and pvped for about a week but then got really bored (I also levelled a pally to 70) it may have only lasted about 2 months, but in them 2 months I have done more amazing stuff than in the 1 year of playing the real legal WoW. The best thing was - I wasn't paying a penny.

The only downsaide was the whole server disconnected around every 1.5 hours, but it was back within 15 seconds. I'd highly recomend Wowscape. If only they would speed up things on the real WoW and give a little more to the 1-50 levels, I'd play again, but they havent, Blizzard just added on another 10 levels and more stuff to wait for and grind to. And when you finally get to 70 full T6 in WoW you say "was that it", but on a good private server you go "Holy shit that was good, im gunna make another class"

Now I'm playing my mates private server casually - just for fun - and its good being a GM.

Don't dis these servers and say they are pointless, I'm glad I left WoW, was hooked. Also this is the first I've heard of them being illegal.
 

I can't believe what I have read from most of the post's here! Of course there are plenty of people on the private servers and the experience is every bit as good as the so called "ligit" blizzard servers. It's so easy to get on them too, you people should try playing them before you shoot your Ignorant mouths off!!.
I think the majority of these posts are by blizzard (call me paranoid) but I can think of no other reason for such bullshit blogs!!!
Oh and P.S on most good servers you start from lvl 1 and the maxium is 70! and hogger is still hard to beat as a level 15!!
 

The FACT is.... most people who either play on a private server (PS), or... have one set up, is ALSO playing the "regular" game. As to the one dude who says oh I am not tempted and a private server is cheating yak yak yak... get a life FOOL. You need not tell everyone about your problem of "not being tempted"... I bet you have been sneaky (as you would see it) and have played PS.
 

What's fun about leveling up so quickly on a private server? Where's the feeling of accomplishment? There's more satisfaction from spending time and effort to get from 1-70 and dong instances and raids than there is jumping to level 70 with very little effort.
 

Well I have no idea what you guys are talking about, I have played on private servers for 5 months and the people online reach up to 4000 without any lagg. The server has more raids than most Blizzard Realms, you just have to find the right one like ChaosCrusade. It has almost exactly BLizz like settings and is really enjoyable, but I still prefer Blizz.
 

"you just have to find the right one like ChaosCrusade. It has almost exactly BLizz like settings and is really enjoyable, but I still prefer Blizz"

Well i have a same think with you, there are private server that almost exactly like Blizz settings and is really enjoyable. I have played on a Private server before, and its really like Blizz and enjoyable with my character has reached level 70. But with bugs, lags, and other problem, its make me dejected.
So now i play on really Blizzard server and i can see how much the difference between REALLY Blizzard and Private server contains from Bugs, features, and people. Much and Much people play on Blizzard than Private Server.
So, with my premise above, i was prefer Blizz than any Private sever.

Message : And dont play on ChaosCrusade, Its really CHAOS and SUCK!