Nostalrius have been in the news quite a bit in the last few months, if you follow what goes on in the World of Warcraft and its gaming community. Unfortunately while the story has taken another turn, it’s not one that makes Nostalrius look that good in the eyes of the community. They have just asked a server hosting their source code, Elysium, to shut down – effectively handing them a cease-and-desist.

First of all, a little history so you can put that into context. World of Warcraft has been around for a very long time, and in that time an awful lot has changed as expansions brought new story and updates patched in and out certain things. Like anything else, nostalgia grew and Nostalrius was one result of that. The server launched on a private French server back in 2015, running a version of the MMO that was just like it used to be, back in the ‘good old days’. This was of course before Legion launched and players were feeling Blizzard had lost their way a little bit with WoW, so it got very popular. The only issue with this is that such projects? Technically illegal in the Blizzard’s Terms of Use for the game. However, because the Nostalrius team ran it so professionally, no one was really against them doing it. The team’s aim wasn’t to make money or steal the IP, they said their aim was purely to make Blizzard realise how big of a demand there could be for ‘legacy’ servers – servers that ran an older version of the game for those who missed it.

Fast forward to April of last year though, and Blizzard finally sat up and took notice of Nostalrius’ numbers. They handed down orders to the Nostalrius team to shut up shop as they were running an illegal server. The news was announced and in the days leading to Nostalrius’ closure; people paid tributes to the team, held vigils in server for the game and generally just poured out a huge amount of support and love for Nostalrius and its team. The team then managed to gain around 278,000 signatures onto a Change.org petition asking CEO Mike Morhaime to consider official legacy servers, and after all the support and outcry Blizzard then sat up and took notice in an entirely different way. Before Blizzcon they invited down members of the French team behind Nostalrius to talk about what they had been doing and about legacy servers, and people through they’d hear more about Blizzard’s official plans at Blizzcon or at least it would get a passing mention.

However, Blizzcon came and went with no mentions of legacy servers and the Nostalrius team seeing it as a sign that Blizzard were going to either drag their heels on the idea, or possible weren’t ever going to consider it announced they would be releasing their source code to allow other servers to take up their banner and continue to prove to Blizzard that legacy servers would be a good idea. They eventually ended up handing it over along with access to their character database to a Ukrainian team, which led to the creation of Elysium – which in many respects is Nostalrius respawned although Nostalrius characters had to be manually requested to be carry over to the new server.

So yes, one team behind an illegal server is asking another illegal server to stop using their source code – source code they handed to them in the first place. This hasn’t gone over well with the community, mainly because it’s just as ridiculous as it sounds.

Their excuse is that Elysium has missed the point of their mission, saying “we have the feeling that the main objective was missed”. They feel like Elysium has now built up a reputation as a ‘pirate’ server instead of a ‘fan’ one, and thus promoting people ripping off the game and setting up their own servers instead of trying to encourage Blizzard to eventually implement official legacy servers. “Until this stigma is removed, it’s unlikely any true progress towards official legacy content can be achieved.”

Elysium on their part have come back with a reply that said they’re going to maintain “All characters that have existed in the game world since Elysium’s launch” and that “all Nostalrius specific data will be wiped.” They believe that the process will take several weeks and will involve a transfer of the game’s files to their own core which they believe is now “equal to or superior to” the one they inherited from Nostalrius.

“Nostalrius handed us the torch, we have no intention of putting it out,” the statement says. “The environment within the game is wonderful, and is one of the key points to why we are so passionate about it. Fun, polite, social, and yet we find a completely different environment on social media.”

Everyone had a feeling the Elysium wasn’t going to be allowed to run without any problems, but I doubt anyone saw where the problem would come from. I don’t think this is over by a long shot.

The Elder Scrolls Online is due to get an update similar to Skyrim’s Hearthfire, in that players will soon be able to purchase and fill with items to make their very own dwellings. The update was originally mentioned at E3 this year back in June, and now a rough ETA has been put on it – Feb 2017.

Named Homestead, the update will be free and introduces 40 different homes across the map; all within base zones on launch, none within DLC-only areas. There will be over 2000 items to buy or craft as well for your chosen home, and the dwellings will be styled after the game’s ten playable races. There will be a variety of sizes too from small living spaces such as Inn rooms to huge manors with large outside areas included, and homes will be instanced to save players all rushing for the best plots of land when the feature launch. Fast travel to homes and the ability to invite friends and guild mates will also be available, and all homes are secure from other players who would try and steal furniture and other features from your home.

Bethesda wrote about Homestead: “Unfurnished homes will be available for purchase with either in-game Gold or with Crowns in the Crown Store. Fully furnished homes will be available for purchase through the Crown Store with Crowns. Players will be allowed to preview homes prior to purchase, whether furnished and unfurnished.”

For further information, visit the game’s  official site.

Earlier this year, one of the biggest legacy WoW servers was forced to close its doors. Nostalrius was hit with a cease and desist by Blizzard and so had to close, causing the players who used it to ask Blizzard if they could consider doing some legacy servers of their own instead if they couldn’t have an unofficial version. Blizzard’s response was of interest at first, but as time went on with no more news people began to wonder. The announcement that it wouldn’t be covered as a topic at this year’s Blizzcon seems to have signalled to a few of those waiting that legacy servers, if coming, were not going to be a priority for Blizzard.

Now the people behind Nostalrius have announced that their legacy server is coming back online, hosted by the Elysium Project. From December 17th, the server will be back and as it’s using the same server code and database that Nostelrius was using before it was closed, all of the characters on that server will be transferred over. Apparently stress tests of up to 10,000 concurrent players have already been done and they’re ready to get back online. Elysium have also announced that more information would be on its way later on this week.

Just what Blizzard’s response to the return of the biggest unofficial WoW vanilla server will be interesting to see. They’re already had to closed down once, and might take harsher action this time if pushed. As mentioned previously, Blizzard have shown a willingness to work with people to get up some legacy servers officially, but the lack of a more immediate response seems to have convinced Nostalrius that they would have to wait a long time for them. Not surprising given how Legion is currently ongoing in the official WoW lore and servers right now.

We’ll keep our eyes on this story and bring you more if things develop.

Blizzard’s doing their part for charity this festive season by pledging the money you use to purchase a pet in World of Warcraft towards helping sick children live out their dreams if you buy one before the end of the year.

Mischief, the Fel kitty, is a release in line with WoW’s current expansion Legion which sees an awful lot of demons and the Fel-tainted popping up everywhere causing trouble. Mischief himself isn’t that bad, costing you only £9 or $10 to adopt and have ready to stand by the sides of all of your characters tied to your Battle.net account. And all of that money, 100% of it, will be given as part of the donation Blizzard will be making to the Make A Wish foundation.

If you’d rather have a softer, more physical version you can do that too. There’s a plushie of the Fel kitty available in the Gear store for $25. Not all of that goes to charity, but at $14 that’s still more than half of it going to good causes.

If you want to support Blizzard’s efforts, you have until December 31st to buy the pet in-game.