As I've seen memed a few times lately, "Why not both?"
The genie is out of the bottle as far as third party servers, and it's not going back. That was a given the second the source code was published -- only a matter of time.
If Tony can work out a deal to get an officially blessed community server, especially if it comes with a wink-and-a-nod agreement to leave third party servers alone and free from C&D threat, that's pretty much the ideal world right there.
If the deal doesn't work out, it's a bit of a loss for having a cohesive community, but the servers will still be out there.
You know, Codewalker...when my Mum (god bless her...) offers me desert and offers me a choice? My answer is...?
'Yes please."
So yeah, why not both?
Totally. Cake and eat it? Nom, nom, nom. *Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Say no more, squire! I'd be delighted if Tony can pull what you say off. It's a win/win. This is a chance for NC (and their new management?) to think about community relations and what they mean. We can have an official and substantial community here at Titan and you'll have those 'unbroken' shards with 200 players clustered about here and there.
Regardless of if the talks work out or not. The genie is out the bottle as you say. Again, thanks to Leandro for putting the files out there for the test server and for the i24 to be worked on.
I think you'll have clusters of communities. It's already started. SCORE presumably still have their own plans. Tony is in talks to get us a home here. And Discord/CoH are doing a fine job booting up not 1 but the 2nd 'test' server. (Again, THANKS to Leandro's help.)
Meanwhile, coders are racing against time to get i24 into something that we can 'all have' regardless of what NC decided to do. The power is no longer in their hands. They don't have the ring. And to be honest with you? I don't think that is such a bad thing. Rather than 'just' one community that can be hit by a bus (see NC's shutdown of 80-100 thousand players...) we will have substantial servers and some less so. The community can all, eventually, run servers and preserve the game against bus attacks.
Unbroken Shard i25 becomes the communities story. They can tell it how they might. There's the AE to create content. Look at Matt Miller's final interview and piece together some Battallion content. Create a zone with a Moonbase. SCORE (I'm sure they hold their own counsel) could recruit Demonhunter to create new maps for i25 unbroken. And use AE ot create missions for it. Look at the Wharf that Leandro and others finished. Beautiful...just needs a story and some mobs.
We're at the nexus. I always believed in Tony here at Titan when there was no where else to go. And I always believed, as night follows day, that SCORE would deliver.
We owe Tony, the dev' leak and SCORE a debt.
Azrael.