With all the MMORPG's being shut down in 2008/2009 there are a lot of gamers that are being upset by this. I don't know if anyone on here has worked in the development of these games, but have a few questions and perhaps some debate about the situation. With some of the games putting companies out of business, and other development studio's shut down. There is a lot of anger involved in both sides the developers and the former subscribers. If someone has the knowledge of what the chances are that the studios will ever release the server software? The only case that I know of is that of Myst online. The other question I have has many different parts rolled into one. How likely is it that the software would leak? Is the server software under a tight lock and key or is it readily available to the people that work there. I realize that there have been many user created server side, and one case that the software on a live game that leaked (Lineage II). With a dead game it would be impossible to create the server side software. There have been a few attempts with Auto Assult being one of the ones that were tried. I believe that that project has been abandoned at this point. Please do not post any links to this software if you know where it is. I am also not wanting to debate the ethics of this type of creation. I am not requesting or advocating the creation of this software on a live game. If it is available then pay to play it. I support many of the games, however I have been rather upset with the death of a few games and the fact the software that I purchased is now useless and more importantly something I enjoyed is now gone forever. Thank you for any insights that you may have.
One of the games i play has lots of private servers. I think it was made using a combination of leaks due to poor security and also people creating their own code for it. The game is called Kal online and im sure on the private server forums there should be more information about other games. Im pretty sure its not uncommon. Please no direct linking to any software.
Also ... this is off the cuff, with no research, and only my own vague recollection ... BUT, I believe that Neverwinter Nights has legitimate private modes wherein you can host NWN servers and have up to 64 players online or something like that ? Can someone jog my memory ? I always meant to set one up and get into it, but alas...
The orginal Neverwinter Nights (AOL) version had reverse engineered server software written for it. The game is very basic, however I have a lot of fond memories of the old gold box games. I haven't gone back and played them as I would like to keep my memories isntead of the reality of what they are like now. I still remember Pool of Radiance at the end if your party wasn't of good alignment you couldn't beat the game. There seems to be a lot of software written for popular and/or F2P games. The sad part for a lot of the failed games is that nobody will be able to reverse engineer them unless somebody did a lot of packet recording and they hook up with the a good engineer who also shares the same love of these games. Auto Assault had a team that was working on it, however I believe they gave up as it was too difficult to write the software without a working model. The only case I know of somebody writing server software post death of the live game is Star Wars Galaxies Pre-CU. This has been a long process that is still not up 100 %. I guess it never really hit me until this last year that MMO's will die. 2 of the ones I play went down and there isn't enough interest from the right people to work on reverse engineering the software. The only hope for those games now is a leak from someone who had access to the software. The big question I have is when the studio's shut down what is the chance that a disgruntled employee or one who loved the game will release the software to the community. I was hoping someone who has knowledge as to if there is any chance that might happen or am I stuck looking at my pretty boxes with no hope of ever playing them again or if there is an outside chance that with more games shutting down it might become more common for leaks to happen. I am sure there are a lot of contracts and legal reasons why the companies are not releasing the software at the death of the game. My only experience with this is with the music industry and if I have learned anything it is no matter who you trust someone will sneak out a copy of the recording. If you look at Chinese democracy and all the security that album had and how many different times a leak happend over the 15 year recording process. I have a few recordings that I promised would never be leaked and with me being the only person with access to with nobody outside of myself and the artist have ever heard these have never leaked. I have found some other recordings that originated with my collection that have leaked out through the handfull of people I have given a copy to. The unreleased games for consoles have started to really come into their own and are becoming easier to find. MMO's are relatively new and leaks to their software have been almost non-existant. The popular games have had software created for them, and I believe a lot of it is driven by somebody that is trying to make money or avoid paying money for them. I have no interest in those as the games are still available to play and the whole point in an MMO is interaction with a broad community.
Thats one of the reasons I hate MMOs (Not to say I dont play them ), they have a real, tangible shelf life. Ive never gotten over the loss of MCO
