For those who have lived under a rock long story short:

A popular World of Warcraft private server called Nostalrius which lets you play the game in its original vanilla state, no expansion content at all, has been issued a cease and desist order by Blizzard and was shut down because for a Private Server it became too big and popular that it endangered Blizz's rights to the franchise. The Backlash of course was so huge that even popular youtubers like JonTron made a rant video. But then something happened and Blizzard is now in talks with the Nostalrius people for something. A thread entitled "To the WOW community" has been posted in the forums and pretty much a lot of people thinks that Blizz mabye actually create an Official Legacy Server for World of Warcraft:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/20743584206

So far no confirmations but if this actually happens then this could be huge.

Not according to the post you linked to:

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

My goodness the Cataclysm expansion, Diablo 3, and Starcraft 2 really alinated many PC gamers from Blizzard stuff did it not?

I remember a time when Blizzard WAS PC gaming at one point.

Or the point that you are talking about a MMORPG on a mostly singleplayer platform.

Edit: And also as others mentioned - too many always online thingies with their games.

I think it probably started with WoW for lots of people, especially when it turned into an unprecedented success. Though the RMAH and online-only singleplayer of Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 certainly didn't help :P I don't mind so much in the latter case, since (except for the horrendous story) I massively enjoyed SC2's singleplayer. My only real issue with battlenet is that it isn't possible (as far as I know) to be online but for it to appear as if you're offline line, like in Steam.

If a vanilla WoW server does get launched one day, I'd seriously consider trying it out (not that I know where I'll find the time for it). A big part of the enjoyment I got out of WoW in the 4 months that I played was due to the awesome Warcraft atmosphere born out of the RTS games, and that atmosphere comes across the strongest in the vanilla zones. Everything from BC onwards, with very few exceptions, came across as far less Warcraft-y to me.

Really even TBC and Wrath?

Blood Elves, Naga, Outland, and Northrend were featured heavily in Warcraft 3's expansion.

Also the next expansion, Legion, is taking place on the Broken Isles which has not been seen since Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne (The first part of the Night Elf campaign.

Nah. As far as I'm concerned, their multiplayer focus did. I can't be bothered with Blizzard these days.

I didn't even know that Wow today is different from the one 12 years ago. I thought they're just milking the same game year after year. Which they are.

Legacy Servers are something that Blizzard should have opened long time ago. I would consider coming back to WoW if it had WotLK server opened.

Or maybe not.

I got tired of ever-changing nature of MMOs. Word ever-changing is being used in worst sense possible - constant deterioration of game mechanics, removal of old content, making a lot of inconsistencies within game world. Perhaps I was poisoned by Cataclysmic "pill", which followed by attempt to revisit Ultima Online only to see that it is absolutely different game now too (and my favorite private shards being already dead for quite a time). Cataclysm was THE end of WoW as people knew it. But Warlords of Draenor actually managed to be much worse (as if it could be). With a lot of veteran players wanting real WoW, Blizzard might have to listen to them, it isn't like they have much choice - if people want to play real WoW, official servers are the wrong place to go nowadays.

The samething has happened to Valve.

So far they have not made a new game since because they have focused all their attention on DOTA 2.

WoW today has nearly nothing in common with the one 12 years ago. I guess that one of the reasons for changes is so that it was easier to milk it.

Not just Dota 2. Top 3 games played on Steam are all Valve games: 1. Dota 2, 2. Counter Strike: Global Offensive, 3. Team Fortress. All valve games and all MMOS.

A few zones in Northrend were pretty cool true, like Grizzly Hills and that jungle zone (where I got my purple drake!), but for me it didn't compare to the vanilla zones, atmosphere wise that is. I can't really put my finger on it. The dungeons were pretty fun still I have to say. Where the atmosphere that I liked totally flew out of the window was with Cataclysm. I didn't enjoy the underground, underwater or desert zones one bit.

I don't care about their games, but their platform is relevant at least. Not so with battle.net, as far as I'm concerned at least.