PSN: kowi - WiiU: kowi - XBL: KoWi - twitch.tv/kowi - "Yes, Kowi is the King of All" - Unbreakable Vow
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
What are they going to do about an emulator for a dead game? Spend extra money on enforcing the take down? Care about a game they chose to just drop completely and basically want nothing to do with? I mean there is a chance they try to stop it, but honestly I don't think they care enough at this point.
Sending a CND don't cost anything for a corporation with a team of lawyers on staff.
If this had happened six months after the shut down, I'd probably agree. This is literally a week later.
Anon the Felon on
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
It doesn't cost them anything to send a CND, but what about following through with it?
I mean yeah I don't know much about how that works, but I thought the CND was basically a warning of what would happen, and nothing more? I guess it would be all about calling the bluff.
Likely they don't really care. They want the game back and they can get it back. If they get shut down then they have the code of at least the gameplay, and can work on editing it to not involve any of the IP. Or anything really. Getting it out there right away might be about getting as much attention to get any help they can.
There are two different things called a C&D. One is from the government called a Cease and Desist Order, and states you have to stop immediately or face fines, jail time, etc. The other is from a company or private citizen and is effectively a glorified threat or demand.
A C&D in this case would be a threat, not a legally actionable order. It would be up to the community to decide if the listened to it, or if they dared WB to sue them to stop it. And honestly, given how WB has handled this... I'm not sure I'd be on WB's side in this case.
There's also the whole DMCA thing. The EFF specifically got an exemption for breaking DRM for games that have online servers go down. However, the ESA fought against the EFF for Multiplayer and MMO server emulators, so a server emulator is legally muddy waters. It would be trivial to design an emulator to work local only (meaning it's a single player system and thus exempt) and then let some nefarious hacker re-enable the online play later.
IP protection does not extend to a "protocol," and you could also make a strong case to suggest that the communication between client and server is a communications protocol. Which means there's nothing stopping you from reverse engineering that aspect of it.
One also has to go back to just why this happened. WB shut down the game and nuked the community from orbit. Official game, official forums, official site, official facebook, official corporate homepage mentions, all gone. We don't know why. There's a few theories.
If they're retooling the game to have Microtransactions, well, they wouldn't have dropped it outright they would have sent it to SSG, so that's likely out. Remember, there are no Turbine staff left at WB. "Turbine" is just WB pulling an EA and abusing the name's good will.
If they're embarrassed about the game, they probably won't go after anyone setting up emulators due to the press involved.
If they're planning on doing something with the IP or game -- for example, if this was a plot to nuke the lifetime subs, or they plan on making a mobile game with the Name and IP, or they actually did sell it -- then yeah, we'll be seeing a DMCA / C&D fairly soon.
For the record, the SaveAC team has outright prohibited discussing emulators on their Facebook page. They do not consider it a valid option and instead are looking into other options, like using the AC design documents to create new spiritual successors, or working with that gaming museum to try and get an AC exhibit set up.
Myself... I don't anticipate a DMCA or C&D, although I remain worried about it. I do not think one would stop or even slow down the emulators' development at this point. In the end, I maintain this is the best path going forward:
* Emulated server with basic functionality
* Emulated client with basic functionality
* Convergent development to make the emulated server and client speak the exact right language
At this point you'd have a functional client and server that can perfectly communicate with each other, but couldn't talk to the original server and client. In other words, you would have just bootstrapped a third party AC remake -- and removing the IP, redesigning things, etc becomes trivial.
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
That is basically what I thought.
I don't think they need to hide an emulator at this point because what the hell do they have to lose? We have NOTHING left so even if we got something briefly and lost it, we are no worse off than if they had hidden it in the shadows for x amount of time.
I think more than that, they might want answers, and putting an emulator out there in the wild is basically saying "your move now WB" in order to get some form of idea exactly what the hell they are thinking.
So the saving throw that AC's playerbase just hit? Rolled a 20, in fact?
Decal.
Turns out the near two decades of Decal work have made the Decal devs more knowledgeable than Turbine about the AC client's protocols in many ways.
So now it's just a matter of implementation and then reverse engineering the game logic (combat mechanics et all). Which Turbine was quite open with over the years and has mostly been already figured out by min maxing players.
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
It's been figured out since like the first year of the game.
I remember having to work so hard to prove to a guy that when you both melee at the same height, you both miss more (causes a bonus to melee D % for both).
I think it will be pretty hard to shut down an emulator even if WB does want to. After all, there is at least one successful World of Warcraft server running, by people who wanted to return the game to a 'vanilla' state. Has Blizzard/Activision tried to shut them down? Of course they have.
But some countries just shrug at these sorts of fights.
edit: god dammit, I swear I refreshed the page before I wrote this. oh well, leaving it up!
For those who are interested, a lot's been done on PhatAC in the last two months:
Melee and spell combat (no skills/defenses/armor/etc are working; it's just melee weapons and war spells doing exactly the damage they say on the tin, melee damage is modified by base stats iirc).
Landscape mob spawns (AI is simply "run up to and punch player", no spells for them yet)
Dungeons now "work". Mobs spawn and apparently levers and such are functional.
Character creation is now meaningful. You will now load into the game as the character you created in their underwear, instead of a generic guy in his underwear.
Player character leveling: mobs give XP (based on their level only), you can spend xp on stats, stats persist between logins. Base stats affect melee damage, health/stam/mana (only health is used right now), run/jump skills. Other skills can be raised but do nothing at the moment.
Players can go PK and murder each other with melee or spells.
NPCs are interactable and vendors have inventory. They all have the same inventory, but it's a good start.
Inventories now save. This is still a work in progress so there may still be bugs to tackle.
Started functional housing. Crystals now open and display/accept the correct required items. Purchasing not yet enabled.
Added functional healing kits (requires Healing skill.)
Using most distant objects will now cause the player to run towards them and then use them.
Stacks of items may now be merged, but they cannot be split yet (to come soon.)
Armor values were not correctly factoring in protection levels. This has been corrected.
Added enchantment text; this will help some plugins detect when they are cast better.
Added crafting animation.
Fixed bug where items could be crafted on themselves.
Re-added /lifestone and /marketplace with animations. You must stand still to use them.
Miscellaneous changes I cannot remember.
Last week:
Skills matter a lot more. Choose your skills more carefully (in particular, magic, melee, and defensive skills [except shield]).
Spells now cost mana. Stamina to mana, and other transfer spells now work.
Spells now have range limits (based on skill.)
Mana conversion is in.
Skill checks are now in place for magic spells. You may fizzle or be resisted when casting spells with insufficient skill.
Skill checks are now in place for melee attacks. You may be evaded with insufficient skill.
Armor matters. Physical damage calculations now factor in armor levels and armor resistance levels.
Monsters now hit harder; make sure to wear armor.
Spellcasting damage messages are now accurately displayed.
Damage text is now displayed correctly for magma, acid, and other effects.
Mana pools now function and display the correct text.
Fall damage messages are now accurately displayed.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I didn't believe @KiTA 's "complete game by the end of the year" thing when he said it, but I believe it now. Progress has been way faster than I'd ever hoped possible.
edit: dropped into the phatac discord chat right after posting this, and oh shit son there's another playtest tonight
The only thing that could slow it down at this point would be WB. If they brought back Official AC or tried to shut the two emu devteams down that might slow down progress (but wouldn't stop it). However as far as anyone can tell WB is content to just pretend AC never existed... Although they did renew the AC domain name until 2022.
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
I just picture if WB tried to come after them they would just respond "yeah, try and stop us"
Like the pride has to be through the roof at this point. WB gave them about 10 middle fingers across the internet. They can't imagine any threats are going to be taken seriously until they are actually in court.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Pride doesn't matter when your host takes you offline after a C&D, sadly.
Pride doesn't matter when your host takes you offline after a C&D, sadly.
They've picked a web host and infrastructure with that in mind, actually.
WB pissed a lot, a looooooot, of people off when they pulled their stunt, including the original AC devteam, the AC server admins, etc. They only way they could have upset more people is if they had shown up with an "AC Mobile" cash grab sometime in the past few months.
Corpse looting is in. Corpses now decay after 15 minutes.
Most monster respawning should be fixed.
Chests may now be opened/viewed, although items are not added yet.
Spells may now be learned from scrolls.
Most item buffs are in for physical weapons, including damage, offense, defense, speed, as previously mentioned, and should show when appraising the weapon.
House portals should now work.
Home purchasing now works, but homes not functional, will not show on house tab, and will not save yet.
Using healing potions, food, and other stackables will no longer consume the whole stack.
Summoned portals will not disappear after the correct amount of time.
Picking up items will now correctly make the player move towards the item to pick it up.
Fixed bug where life vital adjustment spells (e.g. Harm Other) could not be resisted.
Fixed bug where particle effects would still be shown on spells that were resisted.
Other stuff I am forgetting.
Monsters now cast their appropriate spells. This includes war spells, life spells, and creature spells.
Changed monster charging attack code to appear more smooth, and simplified the chase logic.
Added element-specific armor protection to monsters.
Added charging melee attacks for players.
Added various new creature enchantment buffs and debuffs related to combat.
Weapons now use their skill, defense, and speed modifiers.
Weeping weapons and elemental slayer weapons now provide proper damage bonuses.
Armor Self/Other spells now function correctly.
Added a chat throttle to prevent spamming.
Added Show Helm option to hide headgear visibility.
Updated Town Crier buffs.
Fixed bug with bonus elemental damage applying to players on accident.
Fixed various bugs that would make a player's mouse cursor icon an hour glass forever.
Fixed bug involving armor calculation causing no armor to be used.
Fixed bug where XP would not be awarded if a monster was killed with a life spell.
Fixed bug where bonus elemental damage was applying to players.
Fixed crash bug involving animation processing.
Separated the server code from the server UI to make a Linux build possible.
They had the game completely playable. Quests needed to be coded in, but just about everything else at least worked.
The next update would have added the Roguelike loot system that AC was famous for. At that point it was literally just polishing and bugfixing. AC would have been restored. Not bad for 7 months of breakneck work.
They even added a hardcore mode for PVE / PVP servers as a really neato change of pace. People were telling me about how they were hitting level 30, 55, etc before dying to a lucky crit or what have you.
... And, to the shock of no one, Warner Brothers just sent them a C&D. Not only did they want them to remove the emulator, they wanted them to remove all Youtube videos of anyone talking about the emulator.
This game just can't catch a break.
Yeah, Warner Brothers is within their rights to do it, but it doesn't mean they're in the right to do it.
There's 1 other server emulator project. It's significantly further behind, but it's also open source and the devs are in a country where they can safely ignore WB.
KiTA on
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
They should be able to share their progress with this "safe" one then.
They should be able to share their progress with this "safe" one then.
No need. Both teams have the data packets. It's just a matter of implementation.
Edit: I asked the ACE team, they have all the packet data, it does not include all the data the PhatAC team had from 2005 (when it originally came out), which they don't want because it's "of a questionable source."
They should be able to share their progress with this "safe" one then.
No need. Both teams have the data packets. It's just a matter of implementation.
WB should just do what EA did with UO emulation. Just ignore it since it has minimal actual impact on your product and your company thinks the IP is dead anyway.
This is a bummer. I was looking at setting up a server just a week ago, but decided to hold off until they were further along with the quests.
They should be able to share their progress with this "safe" one then.
No need. Both teams have the data packets. It's just a matter of implementation.
WB should just do what EA did with UO emulation. Just ignore it since it has minimal actual impact on your product and your company thinks the IP is dead anyway.
This is a bummer. I was looking at setting up a server just a week ago, but decided to hold off until they were further along with the quests.
There's a few things...
Apparently WB didn't even mention the emulator by name when they sent PhatAC a nastygram, it was a form letter. They couldn't even be bothered to personalize the threats, outside of demanding youtube footage be removed, which is... really weird.
The rumor that EA, through their "Broadsword" classic MMORPG studio, might be in talks to pick up AC -- this studio used to be known as Mythic Entertainment, and they run DAOC and UO now. This would result in them suddenly being very interested in keeping AC under wraps again.
This rumor started way back when AC was about to close, but nothing obviously came from it... it's possible that it's taking them time to set it up, or EA Broadsword only took notice after the outrage in January. Note this is still just a rumor at this point.
AC being brought under EA's Broadsword imprint is a complex situation. They would definitely re-implement a monthly fee, which might be an issue for some of the players as there were apparently people with upwards of 80 accounts by the end of AC (since they were just $10 for life). In fact, this situation might be why they took a "year off," in order to kill the lifetime subs' contract. At the same time, they seem to be pretty good about running UO and DAOC, running live events in both and actually updating DAOC, so...
I don't think any players would be opposed, ultimately, to the original servers coming back, even with a fee. But at the same time, with the players having been burned once so badly, I can't imagine this would slow down private server development in the least.
Every patch they release for UO results in horrendous bugs, and has actually opened the door for unmitigated duping of a couple of occasions. Their UO content is also pretty poorly done in general, and has an art style incongruous with the bulk of the game. Finally, their use of micro-transactions.
It wouldn't be the company I would want running the MMO I was playing. They're scooping up dead/dying MMOs to wring what blood can be had from the stone. Judging from their interaction with the UO community, there is little interest in the actual game, and once the graph shows it as unprofitable, the servers will go dark. This (again), makes me leering of making a time investment in a game they control.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Every patch they release for UO results in horrendous bugs, and has actually opened the door for unmitigated duping of a couple of occasions. Their UO content is also pretty poorly done in general, and has an art style incongruous with the bulk of the game. Finally, their use of micro-transactions.
It wouldn't be the company I would want running the MMO I was playing. They're scooping up dead/dying MMOs to wring what blood can be had from the stone. Judging from their interaction with the UO community, there is little interest in the actual game, and once the graph shows it as unprofitable, the servers will go dark. This (again), makes me leering of making a time investment in a game they control.
I'll take what I can get.
Plus, give the emulation community an opportunity to snag some more packets.
Every patch they release for UO results in horrendous bugs, and has actually opened the door for unmitigated duping of a couple of occasions. Their UO content is also pretty poorly done in general, and has an art style incongruous with the bulk of the game. Finally, their use of micro-transactions.
It wouldn't be the company I would want running the MMO I was playing. They're scooping up dead/dying MMOs to wring what blood can be had from the stone. Judging from their interaction with the UO community, there is little interest in the actual game, and once the graph shows it as unprofitable, the servers will go dark. This (again), makes me leering of making a time investment in a game they control.
I'll take what I can get.
Plus, give the emulation community an opportunity to snag some more packets.
Same here. I wouldn't mind MTs as long as it's new content (or maybe xp boosts, etc) that they're charging extra for.
But the bolded would be the main interest, especially if the aforementioned MTs ruin the spirit of the game somehow. Combining the currently high interest in emulated servers with an actual live server to scrape data from could produce some pretty big gains.
Today I spent a little time digging around with ACEmu, and talking with the fellows on their Discord.
We're so far out it's depressing.
Pea did the community no favors with his actions. Regardless of his use of a hacked database, his decision to keep his code secret has been detrimental, considering Phat was so far along. If he'd practiced just a modicum of humility, there would have been options.
I can point to two (three if you want to get really specific, although no one else remembers Shadowbane) other MMO communities that went open from the beginning and are still prospering, as anecdote for why the AC community handled this so poorly.
We were few in number to begin with. Stratifying us further with independent goals and secret clubs was the death kneel.
Just FYI to anyone who stopped paying attention to the scene after the Phat servers got taken down, there's a highly functional server that's available to play on right now. Links to everything on the actual youtube page.
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If this had happened six months after the shut down, I'd probably agree. This is literally a week later.
I mean yeah I don't know much about how that works, but I thought the CND was basically a warning of what would happen, and nothing more? I guess it would be all about calling the bluff.
Likely they don't really care. They want the game back and they can get it back. If they get shut down then they have the code of at least the gameplay, and can work on editing it to not involve any of the IP. Or anything really. Getting it out there right away might be about getting as much attention to get any help they can.
There are two different things called a C&D. One is from the government called a Cease and Desist Order, and states you have to stop immediately or face fines, jail time, etc. The other is from a company or private citizen and is effectively a glorified threat or demand.
A C&D in this case would be a threat, not a legally actionable order. It would be up to the community to decide if the listened to it, or if they dared WB to sue them to stop it. And honestly, given how WB has handled this... I'm not sure I'd be on WB's side in this case.
There's also the whole DMCA thing. The EFF specifically got an exemption for breaking DRM for games that have online servers go down. However, the ESA fought against the EFF for Multiplayer and MMO server emulators, so a server emulator is legally muddy waters. It would be trivial to design an emulator to work local only (meaning it's a single player system and thus exempt) and then let some nefarious hacker re-enable the online play later.
IP protection does not extend to a "protocol," and you could also make a strong case to suggest that the communication between client and server is a communications protocol. Which means there's nothing stopping you from reverse engineering that aspect of it.
One also has to go back to just why this happened. WB shut down the game and nuked the community from orbit. Official game, official forums, official site, official facebook, official corporate homepage mentions, all gone. We don't know why. There's a few theories.
If they're retooling the game to have Microtransactions, well, they wouldn't have dropped it outright they would have sent it to SSG, so that's likely out. Remember, there are no Turbine staff left at WB. "Turbine" is just WB pulling an EA and abusing the name's good will.
If they're embarrassed about the game, they probably won't go after anyone setting up emulators due to the press involved.
If they're planning on doing something with the IP or game -- for example, if this was a plot to nuke the lifetime subs, or they plan on making a mobile game with the Name and IP, or they actually did sell it -- then yeah, we'll be seeing a DMCA / C&D fairly soon.
For the record, the SaveAC team has outright prohibited discussing emulators on their Facebook page. They do not consider it a valid option and instead are looking into other options, like using the AC design documents to create new spiritual successors, or working with that gaming museum to try and get an AC exhibit set up.
Myself... I don't anticipate a DMCA or C&D, although I remain worried about it. I do not think one would stop or even slow down the emulators' development at this point. In the end, I maintain this is the best path going forward:
* Emulated server with basic functionality
* Emulated client with basic functionality
* Convergent development to make the emulated server and client speak the exact right language
At this point you'd have a functional client and server that can perfectly communicate with each other, but couldn't talk to the original server and client. In other words, you would have just bootstrapped a third party AC remake -- and removing the IP, redesigning things, etc becomes trivial.
I don't think they need to hide an emulator at this point because what the hell do they have to lose? We have NOTHING left so even if we got something briefly and lost it, we are no worse off than if they had hidden it in the shadows for x amount of time.
I think more than that, they might want answers, and putting an emulator out there in the wild is basically saying "your move now WB" in order to get some form of idea exactly what the hell they are thinking.
Decal.
Turns out the near two decades of Decal work have made the Decal devs more knowledgeable than Turbine about the AC client's protocols in many ways.
So now it's just a matter of implementation and then reverse engineering the game logic (combat mechanics et all). Which Turbine was quite open with over the years and has mostly been already figured out by min maxing players.
I remember having to work so hard to prove to a guy that when you both melee at the same height, you both miss more (causes a bonus to melee D % for both).
But some countries just shrug at these sorts of fights.
131 million packets containing over 224 million total game messages. Wow.
This is PhatAC. They have magic. They have levels. They have monsters. They have AI. They have combat. They have Lifestones.
No loot yet.
He goes to Sub (Hub) at around the 20 minute mark.
AC Emu is making similar progress.
http://aka-steve.com/i-want-updates/
You never, ever tell MMORPG Gamers that doing something will take too much time, effort, or energy. We grind for fun.
Asheron's Call will be fully playable again by the end of the year.
For those who are interested, a lot's been done on PhatAC in the last two months:
Quests!
Your character now saves their logout position.
Monsters will now run at you if you use ranged at them and they cannot get to you.
Quests are being fleshed out more and more.
The basics of crafting have been added.
Quest mob drops are in. Random loot is still pending.
Server now disables landblocks if they are not in use. Huge performance boost to the server.
Global quests work.
Quest crafting works. He created a Canescent Mattekar Pelt and turns it in for the robe.
Inventory saved upon logout.
Quest progress saved upon logout.
Items now stack in inventory. Splitting coming soon.
Healing kits work.
Housing crystals are starting to work. Housing is still a WIP.
Oh, and...
Mana is implemented. Skills are implemented. Skill checks are implemented. Armor is implemented. Fall damaged is implemented.
http://phatac.com/?s=changelog
This patch:
Last week:
edit: dropped into the phatac discord chat right after posting this, and oh shit son there's another playtest tonight
Like the pride has to be through the roof at this point. WB gave them about 10 middle fingers across the internet. They can't imagine any threats are going to be taken seriously until they are actually in court.
They've picked a web host and infrastructure with that in mind, actually.
WB pissed a lot, a looooooot, of people off when they pulled their stunt, including the original AC devteam, the AC server admins, etc. They only way they could have upset more people is if they had shown up with an "AC Mobile" cash grab sometime in the past few months.
The next update would have added the Roguelike loot system that AC was famous for. At that point it was literally just polishing and bugfixing. AC would have been restored. Not bad for 7 months of breakneck work.
They even added a hardcore mode for PVE / PVP servers as a really neato change of pace. People were telling me about how they were hitting level 30, 55, etc before dying to a lucky crit or what have you.
... And, to the shock of no one, Warner Brothers just sent them a C&D. Not only did they want them to remove the emulator, they wanted them to remove all Youtube videos of anyone talking about the emulator.
This game just can't catch a break.
Yeah, Warner Brothers is within their rights to do it, but it doesn't mean they're in the right to do it.
There's 1 other server emulator project. It's significantly further behind, but it's also open source and the devs are in a country where they can safely ignore WB.
No need. Both teams have the data packets. It's just a matter of implementation.
Edit: I asked the ACE team, they have all the packet data, it does not include all the data the PhatAC team had from 2005 (when it originally came out), which they don't want because it's "of a questionable source."
WB should just do what EA did with UO emulation. Just ignore it since it has minimal actual impact on your product and your company thinks the IP is dead anyway.
This is a bummer. I was looking at setting up a server just a week ago, but decided to hold off until they were further along with the quests.
There's a few things...
Apparently WB didn't even mention the emulator by name when they sent PhatAC a nastygram, it was a form letter. They couldn't even be bothered to personalize the threats, outside of demanding youtube footage be removed, which is... really weird.
The rumor that EA, through their "Broadsword" classic MMORPG studio, might be in talks to pick up AC -- this studio used to be known as Mythic Entertainment, and they run DAOC and UO now. This would result in them suddenly being very interested in keeping AC under wraps again.
This rumor started way back when AC was about to close, but nothing obviously came from it... it's possible that it's taking them time to set it up, or EA Broadsword only took notice after the outrage in January. Note this is still just a rumor at this point.
AC being brought under EA's Broadsword imprint is a complex situation. They would definitely re-implement a monthly fee, which might be an issue for some of the players as there were apparently people with upwards of 80 accounts by the end of AC (since they were just $10 for life). In fact, this situation might be why they took a "year off," in order to kill the lifetime subs' contract. At the same time, they seem to be pretty good about running UO and DAOC, running live events in both and actually updating DAOC, so...
I don't think any players would be opposed, ultimately, to the original servers coming back, even with a fee. But at the same time, with the players having been burned once so badly, I can't imagine this would slow down private server development in the least.
Every patch they release for UO results in horrendous bugs, and has actually opened the door for unmitigated duping of a couple of occasions. Their UO content is also pretty poorly done in general, and has an art style incongruous with the bulk of the game. Finally, their use of micro-transactions.
It wouldn't be the company I would want running the MMO I was playing. They're scooping up dead/dying MMOs to wring what blood can be had from the stone. Judging from their interaction with the UO community, there is little interest in the actual game, and once the graph shows it as unprofitable, the servers will go dark. This (again), makes me leering of making a time investment in a game they control.
I'll take what I can get.
Plus, give the emulation community an opportunity to snag some more packets.
Same here. I wouldn't mind MTs as long as it's new content (or maybe xp boosts, etc) that they're charging extra for.
But the bolded would be the main interest, especially if the aforementioned MTs ruin the spirit of the game somehow. Combining the currently high interest in emulated servers with an actual live server to scrape data from could produce some pretty big gains.
Today I spent a little time digging around with ACEmu, and talking with the fellows on their Discord.
We're so far out it's depressing.
Pea did the community no favors with his actions. Regardless of his use of a hacked database, his decision to keep his code secret has been detrimental, considering Phat was so far along. If he'd practiced just a modicum of humility, there would have been options.
I can point to two (three if you want to get really specific, although no one else remembers Shadowbane) other MMO communities that went open from the beginning and are still prospering, as anecdote for why the AC community handled this so poorly.
We were few in number to begin with. Stratifying us further with independent goals and secret clubs was the death kneel.
Grab Decal and the plugin bundle. Then you can murder tuskers or [insert creature type here] even while you're sleeping!