A decade-old story about Blizzard auctioning off their World of Warcraft servers for charity has resurfaced, prompting a recounting of the oral history behind the event. World of Warcraft was a highly popular game from 2007 to 2011, with millions of daily logins. The servers hosting the game were crucial for tracking player characters and NPCs in the open world environment.
Challenges arose with the game’s release in 2004, including Hurricane Ivan damaging the data center hosting the servers just weeks before launch. However, advancements like the introduction of AMD’s Dual-Core Opteron processors led to significant performance improvements in the servers.
As the servers aged, the cost of ownership for maintaining them became unsustainable, prompting a project to replace over 10,000 blades. Recycling old servers for profit was not a viable option due to high removal costs, leading to the unconventional decision to auction off the servers for charity.
Blizzard partnered with a company to remove the blades from data centers, create personalized signs for each server, and auction them off for the benefit of St. Jude. The success of the charity auction not only helped cover the project’s costs but also allowed fans to own a piece of World of Warcraft history.
The article reminisces about this unique initiative that bridged the gap between upgrading servers and giving fans a chance to own a tangible piece of the game’s legacy. The story, sparked by a chance encounter with a Blizzard IT employee, highlights the creative solutions and community spirit that defined the World of Warcraft server auction.
Article Source
https://www.servethehome.com/the-oral-history-of-selling-world-of-warcraft-server-blades-hp-hpe-amd/