Turtle WoW classic server announces shutdown after Blizzard wins injunction

Post by pfdietz » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 1:59 PM UTC

saghm wrote: post #226

pfdietz wrote: post #114

It's important to understand it's not just the Turtle WoW people who violated Blizzard's copyrights, it's also anyone who played on Turtle WoW. They don't have licenses to use the clients, and downloading and running those clients is in violation of Blizzard's copyrights. I wonder if Blizzard got a customer list from Turtle WoW as a result of the settlement. At the least, they could permanently ban any WoW player who…

I don't really get this logic. Why would they want to permanently ban someone paying them money because they also played on TurtleWoW? Isn't the entire argument they're making that TurtleWoW could be hurting their own sales? And given that Blizzard doesn't still distribute their old clients anymore from what I understand, how would you prove that people running the old clients ever even saw the licensing agreement? P…

Post by izzydata » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:20 PM UTC

Post by 72736379 » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC

orphea wrote: post #225

rustyhancock wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was hoping to try out Turtle last summer but didn't get around to it. And had looked into Azerothcore. I hope turtle open sources (if they haven't already and they are allowed to). I do think part of the problem is payment to cover dev time is actually profit. I profit from work, although they are just paying me for my time really.

I hope turtle open sources Have private servers shared their work at all? I have a feeling that everyone is redoing everyone's work and keep it private out of rivalry.

Post by zzbzq » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:46 PM UTC

throwaway27448 wrote: post #131

saadn92 wrote: post #29

I ran a private server years ago. Two things people in this thread are getting wrong: The engineering is way harder than anyone gives credit for. You're reverse engineering a server protocol from the client binary, writing your own spell systems (thousands of spells, each with edge cases), pathing, instancing, combat mechanics. Then scaling it for a few thousand concurrent players on hardware you're paying for out of…

> Blizzard is right to protect their IP No, it's inevitable. There's nothing positive about using the law to crush competition.

Post by throwaway27448 » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 3:09 PM UTC

therealpygon wrote: post #247

throwaway27448 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blizzard is right to protect their IP No, it's inevitable. There's nothing positive about using the law to crush competition.

Competition? From top to bottom, they stole IP for the purpose of selling it. If there was zero content in common and with no overlap in quests, locations, etc, then a fair use argument might make some sense. Instead, they chose to set up shop next to Barnes and Noble and offer to sell photocopied books that they go next door and steal, then call it competition.