World of Warcraft's Executive Producer J. Allen Brack released the following statement via Eurogamer, as a response to the Nostalrius server closure:

"Failure to protect against intellectual property infringement would damage Blizzard's rights. While Blizzard had looked into the possibility of working with unofficial servers, there was not a clear legal path to protect Blizzard’s IP and grant an operating license to a pirate server.We wanted to let you know that we’ve been closely following the Nostalrius discussion and we appreciate your constructive thoughts and suggestions, added Brack. Our silence on this subject definitely doesn’t reflect our level of engagement and passion around this topic. We hear you. Many of us across Blizzard and the WoW Dev team have been passionate players ever since classic WoW. In fact, I personally work at Blizzard because of my love for classic WoW.

We explored options for developing classic servers and none could be executed without great difficulty. If we could push a button and all of this would be created, we would. However, there are tremendous operational challenges to integrating classic servers, not to mention the ongoing support of multiple live versions for every aspect of WOW.

Over the years we have talked about a “pristine realm”. In essence that would turn off all leveling acceleration including character transfers, heirloom gear, character boosts, Recruit-A-Friend bonuses, WoW Token, and access to cross realm zones, as well as group finder. We aren’t sure whether this version of a clean slate is something that would appeal to the community and it’s still an open topic of discussion.

In closing, Brack made reference to the 235,000 signatures for the petition to reinstate the server, saying: "They obviously care deeply about the game, and we look forward to more conversations with them in the coming weeks."

What do you make of all this?

In case you could go for a trip down memory lane, we've provided the original video that depicts the final few minutes leading up to the server shutdown:



You can also check out the compilation of screenshots depicting the original massive pilgrimage staged by players in response to the Nostalrius server shutdown, over here.

Halo Forge mastermind xXHugabearXx forged a custom Grifball level and game mode to mirror the infamous Harry Potter game Quidditch. Though, in this case players use jetpacks instead of broomsticks, but the rules of the Halo 5 Quidditch game are very similar to the original.

-Players are allotted three points for throwing the ball through one of the rival team's hoops, and one point for killing a player on the opposing team with a gravity hammer.

-The first team to hit 15 points is victorious.

Unfortunately, there's no version of the Golden Snitch in this game; and there's no assigned positions, but a team could definitely assign positions on their own. Players eager to try out this game mode in Halo 5: Guardians simply need search for the new level "Quidditch Arena' and the game mode "Quidditch."

That bunny's definitely been eating his carrots, man. Brings back this gem: