Something that would be kind of fun is if/when the game's brought back, they could do it issue-by-issue on a monthly basis. Start with issue 1, next month issue 2, then the next month issue 3, etc etc. The game's whole lifespan condensed down for people to experience all over again as it's 'rebirth'. Sure, that's about a 2 year process, but that gives them plenty of time to create a bunch of new content... or to just work on CoH2. Though I'm sure such a thing is probably not feasable- I doubt Cryptic/Paragon/NCsoft kept every single major update's code on-hand this far down the line and this long past shutdown.
Still, I see other games doing this sort of thing and say "that could be fun to experience again!".
That might be cool. I can't help thinking though, there'd be a lot of people unimpressed with having to wait 23 months before they could play their water blaster again.
How about this instead. While they're developing new content, or upgrading the engine, or making the sequel, they run "
Echo Servers". Each one is set to a key point in the development timeline, just before or just after a major change, and folks could play indefinitely at that point. There would be no advancement of course; perhaps crucial bugfixes, but no major changes or new features would be added to those servers. What you see is what you get. And there would be no server transfers or global mail between Echoes either, since some Echoes would be missing critical features that certain characters would need just to exist. For example, you're not going to run a Beam Rifle / Time Corruptor in the Issue 1 state of the game.
Looking Glass: Issue 1. No Villains, no Epic ATs, no respecs, no badges, no capes or auras. No ED. No PvP.
Destiny Manifest: Issue 7. Villains, Kheldians, SG Bases, ED, PvP.
Midnight Hour: Issue 12. Inventions, auction house, new Hami, radio & bank missions, Rikti invasions, Ouroboros, Cimerora, Soldiers of Arachnos.
Dark Mirror: Issue 17. Day jobs, second build, reward merits, level pacting, Mission Architect, power customization, ultra mode. Change to PvP.
Incarnate: Issue 20.5. Praetoria, tip missions, alignment merits, alignment changing, merged markets, one Inf to rule them all, gleemail, merged transits, universal hospital care, third build, inherent fitness, Leagues, incarnate merits, Null the Gull. Alpha through Destiny Incarnate abilities.
Freedom: Issue 24. New tutorial, new Atlas, Galaxy explodes. First Ward, Night Ward, Praetoria explodes. Extreme Makeover: Dark Astoria edition. In a hurry? Take the TUNNEL. Travel at 4, Ouro at 14, epic pools at 35. Shiny New Penny, Death of a Statesman. Power Pool customization, Invention bonus de-weakening, Trainers multiclassing as Tailors. Paragon Points, Super Packs, capes at level one. One haunted house and two blockbuster movies. Stalker Plus, Blaster Plus Plus, Hybrid Incarnate ability. A zillion badass powersets. The Skulls get over their fear of cooties and let girls join the club.
It would take either installing multiple versions of the client, or integrating a capacity into the launcher to "swap out" the file groups unique to each version. But I think it could prove itself worthwhile overall. Every single player who ever left the game over a certain major feature could come back to the game
they used to play. And then there's those who want to run in the past as well as the present, for comparison or nostalgia or even just for kicks.
I doubt anyone would ever do it, mind you, since they'd basically have to run customer support for six different games. But hey, as long as we're dreaming right?
