The history of World of Warcraft legacy servers is a long one full of cease and desists, petitions and pleas to Blizzard. And now the team behind the Elysium legacy servers have disbanded as well, due to an internal scandal, this time, rather than Blizzard’s intervention.
Elysium was previously carrying on the work of the Nostalrius legacy project after it got hit with a cease and desist. Some people moved over to the new project, with data and players lists being shared. Nostalirius briefly returned, but then shut down again, over fears that it was harming the chances of official legacy servers ever being made. The team also asked Elysium to stop using their data.
The folks behind Elysium agreed, though continued running and working on legacy servers, but strife among the team and accusations of embezzlement has lead to the group disbanding and shutting down the servers. A statement was posted yesterday.
“The Elysium Project as it exists today is no longer a viable project due to the systemic problem of lack of oversight on those with the most access to the servers. Due to failures to uphold the projects ideals and integrity, the Elysium Project is being dissolved and relaunched out of the control of those who have abused the trust of the staff, community, and legacy movement as a whole.”
The statement goes on to explain that a former team member took €2,000 out of a PayPal account used to fund the servers for personal reasons. The same individual, along with another member of the team, also ran a gold-selling business out of the project.
“So what does this mean for the Elysium Project,” the statement continues. “Given what has transpired, we absolutely do not condone any form of retaliation against anyone and will actively work to eliminate any attempts on our platforms to organize anything resembling such. At this time, several key members of the Project Leadership are stepping down and walking away. We expect most of the staff will follow suit given the information revealed here. What is done has been done—we are moving on and request that you do the same.”
Members of the core team who are stepping down are also starting a new project and rebranding effort, called Light’s Hope. The servers will be relaunched under Light’s Hope, and thanks to backups created before the announcement, most of the data has been saved.
Shenna, who took the money from the PayPal account, and Crogge, who started the gold selling business, have posted statements on the Elysium website, confirming the earlier announcement. Despite admitting to what they did, the say they feel betrayed by the members of the team who have left to for Light’s Hope, and they plan to get Elysium back up and running.
Cheers, Kotaku.
