The eight-year unprecedented history of the Turtle WoW private server is coming to an end. Blizzard Entertainment has won a legal dispute over copyright infringement, a natural result, albeit painful for a dedicated community that will lose its digital home. Servers that operated as a modified “vanilla” version of World of Warcraft will cease to exist on May 14.
At the same time, the project team transferred all game worlds to the final patch. The remaining users have a chance to see new raids and close the gestalt before the servers go offline. Social channels and the forum will work a little longer — they are promised to be curtailed on October 16.
The developer, under the pseudonym Torta, published a farewell message — a real tribute to the community. “Working on Turtle WoW was the highlight of our lives. The adventures you went through, the battles you fought, and the friends you met were what made it all worthwhile,” the statement said. The end is really emotional.
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What is Turtle WoW and why is its closure an event?
The project has been embodying a concept dubbed “Classic Plus” by fans for eight years. The developers added new zones, dungeons, raids, and even races — and all this without increasing the maximum level and without interfering with the current ENT. In fact, the server offered an alternative World of Warcraft development branch, as it could have been before the release of The Burning Crusade.
The trial with Blizzard has been dragging on since September last year. The result is predictable: the judge sided with the copyright holder, recognizing the copyright infringement allegedly committed by the server. The settlement has now resulted in a complete shutdown of the project.
The irony of the moment: Blizzard hints at its “Classic Plus”
The closure of Turtle WoW rhymes with the high-profile precedent of Nostalgius. Then the final of the fan server became the prologue to the launch of the official classic worlds of World of Warcraft. Now history seems to be repeating itself. Blizzard is actively developing Season of Discovery, its own version of Classic Plus with new mechanics and content within the framework of the old Azeroth. Turtle WoW’s fate looks doubly sad: the project that gave players what they wanted is going away just as the company itself is starting to move in the same direction.
Fans can only wonder when to expect a full-fledged announcement of the official alternative and whether it will be able to maintain the very “lamp-like” atmosphere that has been cultivated on private servers for years.
