Private Server Guide
Why do people play free WoW?
Why play free WoW on private servers?
Well the title says it all, doesn't it... private servers allow you to play wow for free. That pretty much sums it up, yes? No, actually its not the only reason to play on a private server, in actual fact, the private servers being free is only one of the many reasons that gets people to play and in many cases playing for free is not the most important reason.
In our ro.unds of interviews of the actual players on private servers an interesting observation was made Many of the players there were in fact also playing World of Warcraft on the real servers (also known as "retail wow") with active accounts. We also found out that almost all of the players on private servers had at some point had been active players on retail, the authentic World of Warcraft servers. Ok, that was to be expected of course.
So what are the most common reasons for playing wow on free private servers.
Financial and time issues
Many of the players on pservers have had active accounts on "retail wow" for several years and were not able to keep up with the payments. Its a monthly cost regardless of the actual time you get to spend in the game. So in order to still play occasionally, they started to play on private servers where they could play for free. The other option would be to not play at all or move onto other free games.
Boredom
This is also a very common reason for moving to private servers and we found two player types in this category. The hard-core and the occasional players.
The hard-core players in strong guilds got to the stage where they had done a majority of the end-game content on their official wow account and had just wanted a change from hanging around. Usually these players tend to disappear for a while from private servers with each new patch on the retail servers as they go to explore the new content and features.
The occasional player, on the other hand, is one that doesnt have a strong guild to back them up in the more demanding retail wow and opt for the private servers where, in many cases, the amount of actual grinding is far less. In addition, many wow players have never got to experience much of the end-game content due to lack of functional groups or raids or just not having enough friends online. In any case, on private servers and especially on funservers all players have the possibility to experience all the content designed for wow and to get the full experience, and more on custom realms. This is especially true for some funserver realms where players can get overpowered custom items, levelling beyond 80, and other benefits that allow them to even solo all of the raid content designed for retail wow.
Class and skill testing
Another popular explanation for playing on a free private server. To level up a new character on regular wow is a very time consuming task and can be extremely frustrating to do if you end up noticing that the race/class is actually not something you enjoy playing at the highest level. So they come to a private server where they can either level up any character class to the maximum in a very short time or on some private servers you become level 80 instantly.
This way the players get to test classes at high levels to see how it feels before taking on the massive task of levelling and equipping a similar character on their retail account. Ok, people argue that if you get to level 80 instantly you don't know how to play the class effectively, which is probably true.
The point is that if you get to play the class, test different talents specs, etc. without putting in the long hours. Even if they don't intend on building a new char on retail wow, on a private server you can quickly have a completely different gaming experience with a class change.
Custom content and new experiences
Some gamers just want a change and go for custom private servers with a high amount of custom content, custom areas, custom bosses, custom items, etc. Some servers even allow you to bring in items you have designed yourself on the ever increasingly popular wow-v website where you can create your own custom wow items.
Free wow servers allow you to play free, yes, but there are numerous reasons for trying out wow private servers, even if you are an active player on regular wow and thats why private servers are popular.
Private server donations
Now, while connecting to most private servers doesn't cost you anything and you can have a gaming experience for free, we will add this short part about donations, which brings spending real money into the mix, voluntarily of course.
All private servers are running on servers financed by individual people like we already outlined in our introduction and for popular servers this means that in order to be able to provide a low-lag and smooth experience they will need to run the game on quite costly hardware with high-bandwidth connections. The more popular the servers get the more the expences will generally rise.
Private servers may be free, but on some servers money can get you godly powers!
Almost all private servers are asking for donations from players in order to help out with the expences. In some cases, the donators are offered gifts in return for donations. For example, you can get skills/spells/professions, etc added on your character that would otherwise be unattainable. Some servers merely offer the maxing of levels, professions, and give out ingame equipment sets that would otherwise take a while to get togerher, so the people helping the server out also get a helping hand in return. On some private servers, donators are gifted special overpowered items to let the person sending the money feel appreciated and a little special, and of course be stronger than the regular players.
Sounds like an online shop, so why call it donating and not buying? It is our belief that making money or profits from these micro-payments for ingame benefits could be infringing Blizzard's intellectual property rights which is resulting in this play with words. Please note that this is our best guess and not a legal opinion.
Since the purchases are called donations, you are generally not guaranteed any ingame benefit nor any customer support, or return policy as such. Just bare that in mind if you are considering donating to a private server. Its a donation, not a purchase.