It is clear that the cooperation between Activision Blizzard and NetEase has come to an abrupt and bitter end. As a direct consequence, players of the World of Warcraft China Server had to admit that their adventures in Azeroth could no longer continue, not until Blizzard found another local publishing partner for World of Warcraft, among other games, which will most likely be extremely difficult under current circumstances.
And on January 23rd, 2023, the last day of the World of Warcraft China server, players gathered around to say goodbye to each other.
Booty Bay was the first neutral area in the World of Warcraft. It had a neutral auction house for both factions, and the guards would attack any player who tried to PVP in this area. On the weekend, there is a fishing event called the “Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza” for everyone. It is one of the few places both factions can stick together and have fun.
On the last day, players from both factions were bathing in the sunset, silently watching the ship come and go. Normally, the game has no cross-faction communication. But on that day, when players saw someone from the other faction leave an unreadable message and disappear, they all knew it meant “goodbye”.
A screenshot of the Booty Bay
The Highmountain of the Broken Isles has the tallest mountain in Azeroth. It is the best place to enjoy a view of the starfield. On the last night, countless players came to the Highmountain. At that moment, they were not the heroes who saved the world or fearless warriors of the battlefield, but only a bunch of travelers who wanted to revisit an old place and take several screenshots.
A screenshot of the Highmountain in World of Warcraft
Some were coming and leaving in a hurry, possibly having a long list of screenshots they wanted to take. Others chose to stay. As the crowd gathered, players began to chat. For the players from opposite factions, they used emote commands like “/hug” or “/kiss” to communicate with each other. After all the words, the crowd finally fell into a long silence, until a warlock said: "I feel like crying", and after another long silence, a warrior answered: "We will meet again".
A screenshot of the chat channel where players shared friendly interaction with each other.
“Golden Plains - CN” is the only Role Playing server in China. Normally, the players in this server should behave as their characters would and avoid any Out-Of-Character (OOC) behavior, including using the world chat channel. But on the last day, there were people yelling on every channel, telling everyone to come to Goldshire, a small town near Stormwind City. There is a large space in front of the town’s inn, and it is the first or second town that most Alliance characters visit in their adventures.
A screenshot of Goldshire from the Golden Plains - CN server
Many players were restricted by their role-play rules even as it was all coming to an end. Someone was advertising their new bar in Stormwind City. A Priest suggested others could send mails to her, and she would turn them into time capsules and return the mails when the time is right (when the China server is back in operation).
However, no matter how hard they tried, there is no reasonable explanation for the termination of the game operation. Eventually, even the priest with the time capsule idea said something OOC from the bottom of her heart: ”I don’t know if the server will be back in operation one day. But I trust it will, along with those who send mails to me.”
A screenshot of the priest’s quote
In every server, the Horde players had similar special campfire parties in their capital city Orgrimmar. People formed up in a circle, riding on their phoenix or fire hawk mounts. Both fire hawk and phoenix are epic mounts and have a low drop rate from specific raid bosses. However, they were from the earlier expansions, so many people eventually got one after countless raid runs. They acted as a symbol of the dedication and effort players put into this game.
Players riding fire hawks set up a campfire party
In the center of the circle, players stepped in one by one. Some performed a dance, some displayed toys from their collections, and some launched a firework. When someone left the circle, another player would fill the gap in no time with the same kind of mount.
A player was sharing their experiences in the circle formed by the phoenix.
Unlike Orgrimmar, Stormwind City did not have the space for such a campfire party. Alliance players chose to ride their favorite mounts and have a fireworks show near the city gate.
Meanwhile, some people were trying their luck on raid runs, hoping to have some luck on the last day. And there were people helping them: the raid-carry players. Those experienced players helped others speedrun raids to get the mounts they wanted. They treated it like a career and kept doing it until the last moment of the game.
Late that night, people gathered around Lion’s Rest, the monument for the warrior who fought for Azeroth to his last breath, and the Tomb for King Varian Wrynn. Many players believed Varian’s sacrifice represented the end of an era in World of Warcraft.
Alliance players circling around Lion’s Rest on their Snowy Gryphons
Players dismounted from all kinds of mounts and changed to the Snowy Gryphon, a common but perfect mount to represent the Alliance. They silently waited around the tomb until someone activated Sylvanas' Music Box, playing the song Lament of the Highborne.
When the song ended, people yelled, “For the Alliance! For Azeroth!”.
The item description of Sylvanas’ Music Box, taken from wowpedia.
Ten minutes before 12 o’clock, January 24th, the server began broadcasting the countdown notifications for the termination. In the last three minutes, the countdown frequency increased to once per 15 seconds. It felt like they were asking the players to prepare themselves.
A screenshot of the 15-second notification warning
Players shared their goodbyes with each other. Some were rushing to the final destination they had picked: sleeping in an inn, leaning in Moonglade, jumping from Maw or a tower in Dalaran. There were some unlucky ones who did not arrive in time and were forced to log out halfway to their destination.
There waiting for them was the login screen that had not changed for seven years.
For some reason, the China server kept the login screen of the Legion(2016) expansion unchanged.
Source: YYS