Blizzard Auctioning World of Warcraft Server Hardware

[bv90andy]

[citation][nom]ironmb[/nom]Milk the idiots for more money.[/citation]
It's for a good cause...

 

[Guest]

So they are washing off all Mountain Dew spills from all the server crashes since game release? Man I feel sorry for the poor bastard that got that job!

 

[Benihana]

[citation][nom]wildkitten[/nom]I'm not criticizing charitable donation, but let's look at timing.As much as anyone wants to say Bobby kotick isn't in charge, that's been proven he is. His motive is profit bar none.Now, why isn't Blizzard just quietly making a donation? They don't have to. They don't even have to do this. The issue is Kotick is so polarizing it's hard to believe he does anything out of a sense of altruism.Activision is losing money. Blizzard is practically supporting Activision Blizzard and they are bleeding subscribers. Isn't it just a little suspicious that this charity auction is happening just as it comes time for the 3rd quarter shareholder conference call?Don't get me wrong, it's good St. Jude will get some money. However, it's not Blizzard's money. It will be the money of the people buying the server blades whose money will go to St. Jude. Blizzard I am sure is going to be making a little something off the overhead before the net proceeds will go to St. Jude.So let's look at this. Blizzard is selling surplus equipment lieing around which is worthless to them that they can now write off. Other people will be buying these. It will be the customer's money, not Blizzard's going to St. Jude. Blizzard now get's all the good publicity just before a potentially damaging shareholder conference call. And you wonder why people question Bobby Kotick?[/citation]
Just wanted to say that this was a good read. +1

 

[balister]

According to the company, approximately 2,000 of the original HP BladeSystem server blades from about 500 different World of Warcraft realms will be auctioned. The server blades will also be prettied up for the occasion, crammed inside a custom windowed case featuring the World of Warcraft logo and an additional commemorative plaque signed by the World of Warcraft team so that onlookers peeking in know it's not just a piece of discarded junk.

Errr...but it is a piece of discarded junk. If it wasn't, they would have reused it on some other project instead of auctioning it off. IT Departments will use a server until it can no longer be viable, so if they are auctioning these, they have zero use for them, ie, discarded junk.

 

[eddieroolz]

The premier example of milking diehard believers out of cash.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Will the servers still run WoW? Maybe you could keep one in your basement for LAN parties?