"Warcraft" exited Two generations of players bid farewell to youth

Zero equipment, lifestyle "formatting" and "getting out of the pit", go to bed early, get up early, and return to the family

"Warcraft" exited Two generations of players bid farewell to youth

2005-2023, 18 years.

In the brilliant fireworks of the night sky, the heroes of World of Warcraft exited. Although the dispute between NetEase and Blizzard (a video game company) has been brought to court, it still cannot prevent the shutdown of the World of Warcraft national server.

127 days after the shutdown of "Warcraft", it is rumored on the Internet that the two parties involved are about to go to court, and the national uniform may also be reopened... For players, during the shutdown, they face a series of problems such as the inability to trade accounts and devices, the transfer of "electronic urn" data, and the legal protection of virtual property.

World of Warcraft has accompanied at least two generations, and the data that records the youth of countless people disappears with its shutdown. Some people say that when all the data stored for 18 years is erased, life is as if it were formatted. There are reluctances and regrets, but life has also been renewed.

Retrieve your Warcraft account

I met my father's "warrior" during his lifetime

Even if the news of the closure of the "World of Warcraft" national server came out, "Little Seven" did not touch his father's account again. Although the shutdown cost him and his father's two accounts, he said: "Those things can't be taken away." ”

10 years ago, "Little Seven"'s father died of illness, when "Little Seven" was only 12 years old. When he grew up, "Little Seven" found that many of his memories of his father were blurred, but he still remembered the scene when his father held him to play the game World of Warcraft. As a result, he began to contact "Warcraft" and became interested in his father's experience in the game. He wanted to retrieve his father's account and see what his father "looked like" in the game.

Netizens in the game team told the story of "Xiao Qi" on Weibo, and the number of views skyrocketed after Weibo was posted. Under the attention of the media, in 2017, "Little Seven" retrieved his father's account from the operator, and after he logged into the game, he saw the familiar figure of his childhood - a tall "orc warrior".

At the moment of "meeting", "Xiao Qi"'s hands trembled excitedly, and he clicked on the equipment in his father's account, took screenshots of the pictures one by one, and saved them in the hard disk. "Oh my God, there are a lot of things here don't say I haven't seen, I haven't even heard of them, I'll list them for everyone to see, to see my father's glorious past." He told netizens in the post: "My father, what a great father. ”

But after opening the account and taking screenshots, "Xiao Qi" never touched his father's account again, and he still used his account to play games. At that time, he did not think that one day the entire World of Warcraft would disappear.

Since the news of the closure of the Warcraft National Service, "Xiao Qi" has abandoned the national server account and began to switch to the foreign server. These external server accounts were originally tested and taken by him and friends, and they were not deeply maintained before.

During this period, NetEase also launched an "electronic urn", players can migrate the national server account data to the "electronic urn" for retention, but "Xiaoqi" did not do this. He thought, "What if that data is migrated in?" Could it be that one day it will be resurrected after reopening? He felt that it was unacceptable for him to "come back from the dead" his father's account.

The equipment data in his father's account disappeared with the shutdown of the national service, which made "Xiao Qi" feel regretful, after all, his father's account was retrieved by him with great painstaking efforts. "It caused such a big sensation back then, so many netizens and players helped me recall my father's account and play games, but now it's suddenly gone." And the equipment in his own account also took a lot of time to punch down little by little, "But what can I do?" This is the fate of all our players".

"Xiao Qi" feels that a big reason why the game "World of Warcraft" is attractive is that it is not a game that requires "krypton gold", and the level and equipment of the game have to spend time and energy to fight down little by little. Therefore, there is no trading market for account numbers and equipment, so it is impossible to assess the value.

Spent 30,<> yuan for the establishment of the guild

"As a result, nothing was left"

Not everyone plays "Warcraft" like Little Seven and does not "Krypton Gold", and some players can clearly calculate how much they spent on "Warcraft". "Chairman" is the name of Team Perfect, the president of the game, who has been playing World of Warcraft since its open beta in 2005. After the launch of Nostalgia in 2019, he also founded the most influential guild (game term, referring to a player organization) "Perfect" in the Superior Server Alliance camp. In order to create this guild, the "chairman" invested about 30,<> yuan.

The "chairman" recalled that at that time, he established a nostalgic service guild with a few friends, and he was very tired at the beginning, in order to open up the land for the team and stabilize people's hearts, he spent money to get a lot of materials for the guild. For example, buy potions that enhance abilities in the game, materials to craft equipment, and so on. At that time, about 10 regiments and more than 200 brothers joined, and these consumables were provided to the brothers in the guild for free.

Of course, the "chairman" is willing to invest so much money. In the past 20 years, he has had more than a dozen top-level equipment accounts, which can also be sold as a whole, but he estimates that the value is less than <>,<> yuan, which is a drop in the bucket compared to his own investment. Therefore, the "chairman" did not have the idea of monetizing the accounts, but after the shutdown of the national service, these accounts could no longer log in, which made him a little sad.

For the player "chairman", the shutdown of the World of Warcraft national server has also affected his communication with friends, and the WeChat group, which was very active before, now rarely speaks, which makes him very uncomfortable.

In "World of Warcraft", the entrepreneurial partner of the "chairman" met in "World of Warcraft", and the friendship between the two continued from the game to work. Similarly, "World of Warcraft" was once a dating platform used by many people, and with the closure of the national service, this social channel has disappeared.

Now, the "chairman" feels that the absence of "World of Warcraft" is a good thing for him, and he used to play Warcraft for hours, affecting his work and family. "Many people around me rarely mention Warcraft after they get out of the pit. Warcraft has become a memory, and life has to look forward. ”

Because of the guild, the "Eight Eight" and "Little Orange" couple met a lot of netizens. Initially, "Little Orange" did not support "Eight Eight" to play the game, and the two even quarreled because of this. In the past two years of working from home, "Little Orange" looked at "eight eight" every time, and found that the atmosphere of the guild was very good, in addition to playing games, everyone would chat about home together, so he also followed her husband "into the pit".

"Little Orange" later built its own guild, which once grew to 100 people. There was a 70-year-old retiree who later became a year-end friend with them, and a student who was preparing for the college entrance examination at the time, and every time the couple saw him online, they would immediately rush people and "play after the exam."

World of Warcraft is gone, guild members are scattered, and although some still retain WeChat contact information, there are fewer contacts. The "Little Orange" couple began to spend more time with their children and work, which is also the state of many players today.

Until now, the "eight-eight" and "little orange" couple still remember the equipment in their accounts, and they still remember the pictures when each piece of equipment was obtained and used. "Little Orange" muttered one of her hunter's weapons, and "Eighty-eight" thought of Manolos' fanged shoulder. The former was given to "Little Orange" by a netizen, and the latter was brushed by "Eight Eight" I don't know how many times.

The couple said that although these things were just data, they accompanied them for 10 years. Even if you don't play, the thing should belong to you. But now it disappears because of the suspension of the service, and I am unwilling.

These properties represent youth

Gone are the days

Few World of Warcraft players are willing to go to Blizzard for disappearing accounts and equipment, and everyone just reprimands the game company in the group. Because the vast majority of people do not know whether their accounts and equipment belong to their "property" and whether they have the right to dispose of them. Some players said that in fact, all players agreed to the operator's game description when registering, which made it clear that the player did not have ownership of the account.

Just a few days after the news of the suspension of World of Warcraft, a practicing lawyer player wrote an article analyzing the problem of virtual property.

Warcraft players, signed "Lawyer Jin Yiwen of Hua Cheng Law Firm", cited relevant legal bases in the analysis article. According to the article, according to the relevant regulations, "game tokens obtained by recharging will be properly handled" and "the amount of recharge will be refunded according to the corresponding proportion". However, there is no clear legal explanation for the conversion of game tokens obtained from recharging into game props and game props obtained from non-recharge, and generally only a lower amount of compensation is given according to the court's ruling.

Some netizens also refunded some service fees that were not consumed.

The player "Milk De Zhao Xiaoru" even sighed that "NetEase is very conscientious", because he received a refund of about 1000,<> yuan less than a month after applying for a refund, and some of the services he purchased were originally discounted, and NetEase returned them at the original price.

But the "Milk De Zhao Xiaoru" who got the money was not happy, and what he couldn't give up was the virtual equipment in the account, "For example, 'Thunder Dragon', which is a thing that requires players to spend a lot of energy and money, it's quite a loss!" ”

"Milk De Zhao Xiaoru" is a veteran player who has been playing "Warcraft" since 2005, and when he first came into contact with World of Warcraft, he was still in high school. Later, he became a World of Warcraft streamer and instructional video producer. Although he admits that he doesn't make money doing it, he still likes to get a sense of accomplishment from coaching players to improve the game. "Zhao Xiaoru" did not use the so-called "electronic urn" because he felt that "this key has not been debugged, it is immature, and there will be online failures and problems that cannot be downloaded when applying."

Some of the virtual asset players reluctantly chose to give up, and some stored the data in the "electronic urn", looking forward to the resurrection of the national service one day. Player Daigo used to want to do the same, but just as the progress bar was spinning, he suddenly let go and gave up. "These virtual properties represent youth, gone forever," he said. ”

Loss of "Warcraft"

Some people switch to "eating chicken", and some people make time for fitness

During the initial period when the World of Warcraft national server was closed, in addition to the loss of accounts and equipment, the psychological hole of players could not be filled for a while. They either choose to go to the Asian service to "reunite" or go to the "chicken-eating" battlefield, while others make time for fitness, housework, spending time with children, going to bed early and getting up early.

Now, after a few months of suspension, many people said: "Come out." But others feel they need time to calm down, after all, more than a decade of their time and emotions have been accumulated there.

A few days before the official closure, "Little Seven" has already let go, "World of Warcraft" is a memory of his father's untimely death, and while bidding farewell to the game, he has also saved his father's "imprint" in the game in his heart.

On the morning of the official closure, "Milk De Zhao Xiaoru" created a new account on the server "Mai Wei Yingge" when he first played Warcraft, and then he has been guarding his "birthplace"...

That afternoon, the couple "Eight Eight" and "Little Orange" said goodbye to the members of the guild they created, and some members hoped that they could witness the moment when World of Warcraft stopped serving, but they were politely refused, and the two only left a sentence: "Let's witness it for us~" and left.

After dinner, "F" collapsed on the sofa, broadcasting TV boringly with one hand, and brushing WeChat moments with the other, looking through the last screenshots posted by friends in "Warcraft".

Before midnight, "Daigo" returned to Knell Town (the birthplace of the undead race in World of Warcraft), lay down in an empty coffin, and turned off the chat dialog. Then, accompanied by other undead players around him, he waited for the zero hour bell to ring.

At 0:00:00, the words "Disconnected from the server" popped up on the screen, and World of Warcraft came to an abrupt end, and the "world channel" where players chatted was also disconnected.

After a brief silence in the WeChat group where netizens gathered, one person broke the silence: "It's gone." Then someone said: "Goodbye to the soldiers", and another said: "Go to sleep, it's offline, tomorrow morning I will send the children"...

Daigo sighed as he looked at these messages, and he felt that the part of his life that was pinned on him was gone.

Text/Reporter Zhang Ziyuan Intern Dai Ziting

Photo courtesy of Interviewee Coordinator/Lin Yan Zhang Bin

(Beijing Youth Daily)