"Pristine Realms" is Something Blizzard is Looking Into

"We have been discussing classic servers for years."

In a post on the Battle.net forums, WOW's executive producer J. Allen Brack spoke about Nostalrius closure.

"We have been discussing classic servers for years," Brack wrote. "It's a topic every BlizzCon and especially over the past few weeks. From active internal team discussions to after-hours meetings with leadership, this subject has been highly debated."

"We explored options for developing classic servers and none could be executed without great difficulty," he added. "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."

The only way Blizzard can make Classic servers work is with "pristine realms."

"Over the years we have talked about a 'pristine realm'," he said. "In essence that would turn off all levelling 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."