Well to be fair, they have always been fairly aggressive in the clamping down on private servers from what I have heard.
And as NCsoft *still* own the IP for their products, they *have* to protect them, because otherwise they get released into the public domain (brand dilution here).
*shrugs* It is especially important if the game is running, but *also* important if the game is no longer running. If they didn't do this, then that would mean that later on, someone else *could* release the game *officially* using the name and artwork of the game with nothing that NCsoft could do about it.
Say you personally made a game, and then for whatever reason you had to stop supporting it (any reason, it isnt important).
People then started releasing their own "versions" of the game (to save the community)
Then 10 years from now, say EA re-released the game and made a boat load of money from it.
You would be angry wouldn't you? Especially if EA *didn't* pay you a single penny for it.
But if you are saying that NCsoft are in the bad for this, this is what they are trying to stop. They are protecting their IP so that situations like this *cannot* happen.
If they want to crack down on it because it's making money, that'd be one thing. If they aren't going to do anything with the game then it SHOULD be fine. If years down the road, they decide to host an official game again, they can crack down on it. On the EA comment though... what are you implying? Nobody is going to be making money off of a private CoH server, and it certainly isn't going to lead to a western supercorp selling the game without paying royalties.
I've been thinking it for years now, but this shutdown has been the final straw. "Rights" sway WAY too far in favor of corporations. Is it their property? Sure. But we're the ones that make it possible for them to even do anything with their property. All their money and power comes from consumers. And to think that businesses will STILL kill things even when they're making money is just ridiculous. And I know very well why it's happening, NC is doing what everyone is doing, focusing on "mass-appeal" products. Mass-appeal, meaning you market only to what makes up the largest % of the audience. You know what that does? It tells anyone who isn't part of the majority that they're not worth marketing to. It tells us that World of Warcraft is the only type of MMO. It tells us that you can't have a successful romantic film unless you do something to make your lead actor look like Robert Pattinson. It tells girls above the age of 12 that if they want to be anything for Halloween besides a stripper, they need to make the costume at home. It tells us that every modern film MUST have hip hop music in it. Poisons exist in very edible product we buy from the food store simply because it makes the food more addicting. Big business it killing niche marketing, and as a result is leaving a LOT of people out in the cold. Modern capitalism is killing diversity, and the only way to change that is to shift the balance of power.
If NC later on decides they want the game "back", then fine. But keeping everyone in the dark just because someday they "might" want to make money off it again, just... no. Preventing non-profit private servers for a game with no official servers isn't "protecting" the IP. It's just being a bully.
Besides, if SOE, the quintessential super-tyrannical MMO developer, can manage to put up with player-projects of their old games... and SWGEMU was running WHILE the official servers were.