Folks, I've been removing posts I deem abusive or destructive last night and today. I want to remind everyone to be civil. If you want to talk about how you feel about the situation, fine. But if you want to post rants personally attacking Leandro, SCoRE, or anyone else, or try to propagate baseless speculation, your post is going to be nuked.
I apologize for being cynical, but it's about all I can be because the entire situation is extremely cynical. It feels as though the overall CoX community has had a pretty clear caste system in play with what is more or less, a first class citizen group who invited who they deemed worth from the unwashed masses. It's frustrating to say the least.
...And this is why.
The CoX community DOES NOT have a "caste system." Re-read my
On "private servers" post again:
In reality, if you're here, as far as I'm concerned, you're part of the "in" crowd, period, end of story.
Now, having said all of that, I have consistently said that there is a possibility that one of the devs might have managed to get their hands on the code before the shutdown. I'll even concede that there might be a private server out there. If so, then more power to them, and I hope that eventually whoever has access to the code will see fit to release it. I have also repeatedly acknowledged that there is a team out there I've been referring to SCoRE who has been working on reverse engineering a server, and while I know that it's been a long time and some folks have lost faith that they're making any progress, they ARE still working on it, and they ARE still making progress to the point where I've seen some simple interactions happening. If you're wondering why they won't release their work, it's mainly because it is at a VERY early stage, it's VERY difficult to get it configured correctly, and they would much rather spend their time working on coding than having to worry about releasing stuff, supporting it, getting an inevitable flood of questions about "how do I set this up?" (only to be disappointed to find out that it takes expensive development software), and getting an inevitable flood of complaints that it's not working right and how much their progress sucks so far. (Which was yet another thread posted a few days ago that we deleted, but I digress...) And not to put too fine a point on it, the reason that team is highly encouraged to maintain radio silence on their efforts is precisely because of what is going on over on Facebook right now, baseless rumors and allegations that are completely unconstructive based on what some people think (but who don't actually know) what is going on.
So in short, is there a private server? Not that I know of, although it is still being worked on. Even if there is, it is totally irrelevant, because whoever is running it obviously doesn't want it released to the community-at-large for what is hopefully a really damn good obvious reason. I know that if I were running such a server, seeing the noise that is being made over these allegations, along with the threats that are being made and the unbridled sense of entitlement that is being conveyed, along with the legal threat of what would happen if it got out into the wild, would certainly turn me off of the prospect of releasing the software. In short, if there is such a thing, what's going on over on Facebook is likely driving those people deeper underground, not encouraging them to release it to the community.
To the folks who are spreading this crap around on Facebook, if you want something constructive to do instead, support the community instead of trying to tear it apart. Express support for SCoRE, or participate in one of the successor projects, or even snag a copy of Icon and make some videos to entertain the community without the pretense of there being a private server.
This holds true today just as much as it did then. The only difference is that now we know there's a private server. Well, bully for them. I'm not jealous of the people who have been playing on it, because I personally am no worse off than I was this time last week. When Leandro says that he intended--and still intends--to release the code, given his reputation for actually producing stuff for the community and contributing to projects like Paragon Chat, I don't get all pissed off scorched-earth at him, I take him at his word. In my humble opinion, he's earned that over the years, and it disappoints me greatly that too many people can't see past their own anger to realize it.
At any rate, this...
There are aspects that I completely understand, and there are aspects of it that were extremely cynical on the part of those involved, such as people who are in the know about an actively working private server enforcing "no private server discussion" on forums and subreddits, people actively involved in running SCoRE being involved in other efforts that have existed as little more than a placating romparoom for the members of this community not deemed worthy of access to the actual game...
...was the main reason I'm replying this morning.
I can't speak for subreddits, but the Titan Network, and I in particular, have not been enforcing a "no private server discussion" policy because we're "in on" a private server. If you want to know why we've enforced that policy, it is PRECISELY because of what's going on right here, right now. Forget the totally bogus allegations I've seen over the years. Even around this event, in which there has proven to be a core of truth, the amount of lies and misinformation about us (the Titan Network), SEGS, City of Titans, and numerous other community members and leaders has been flabbergasting. I got accused of being "in hiding" yesterday, and I'm like, wait, what? I have been posting and replying in various social media platforms and responding to people on Discord almost constantly since Sunday afternoon.
I have screenshots of people in Discord saying that CoT was just a front to funnel money to the private server project. Even the guy who posted the video that started this whole brouhaha initially said that SEGS was behind the private server project, throwing a crapton of flak their way. As I type this, Leandro is being doxxed and receiving death threats.
As for the "placating romparoom" you referred to, I take STRONG exception to that, and frankly, it pisses me off and it pisses on the enormous amount of time, effort, and energy that people who have NOTHING to do with the private server have put into building, testing, and deploying Paragon Chat. I personally pay for the server on which the XMPP service is hosted out of my OWN pocket every month, and just for the record, I am NOT a member of SCoRE, I don't play on any private servers out there, and I am in NO WAY motivated to keep it up and going as any kind of "front" or "distraction" for anyone else.
But while a small group of people who have been posting conspiracy crap for years are taking a victory lap feeling all vindicated that, like a blind hog, they managed to find one acorn, those are the kinds of baseless allegations and lies--again even around a nugget of truth--that we're having to put up with.
I get that you're upset. I get that you're mad. But other people are getting hurt, people who have nothing to do with any private server, people who have busted their butts trying to provide a community where EVERYONE feels welcome.
So while we've allowed more leeway in this thread lately due to getting how people are feeling, this forum is
not a free-for-all where people can feel free to come in and treat Leandro, or anyone else, like scum. We are
not going to continue allowing people to ascribe unfounded malicious motives to those who have been working on ANY community-related project, INCLUDING SCoRE or any other private server-related mess.
You want to wonder why they haven't released code? Fine. But you want to come in here and accuse them of not doing so because they're elitist pricks who for some insane reason have secretly been working to set up a gated community of "haves"? Take it somewhere else. There are plenty of other forums and Facebook pages where the moderators have decided to let anything go, places that have devolved into cesspools of hate and vitriol.
I get your cynicism, I really, really do. But this isn't a place to take that cynicism and project it as far and wide as possible, hoping it takes hold and infects everyone else. If that were the case, we never would have survived the shutdown because believe you me, there was a LOT of cynicism back then, too. This a place where we come together to get over our cynicism, where we pull together--and yes, that means even the people who have been on the private server--as a community. Hell, we're talking about THREE THOUSAND people, undoubtedly many of whom have been on here frequently continuing to prop up the community as SCoRE has been working on a working server, carrying everyone through some bad times until hopefully we can all enjoy the fruits of their labors. (And no, I'm not going to entertain this notion that "they never intended to release the game," that's ludicrous.)
They could have simply gone away to live in their "gated community" and chose not to. Why? Because as I said in my "On 'private servers'" thread above, there IS NO gated community here. There is no caste system. There are no "haves" and "have-nots," there's just us. ALL of us.
If anyone can't abide by that, then they're choosing to isolate themselves from the community, not us. And I think that's a shame, but again, we're not going to allow anyone to use these forums to try to make this whole "caste system" foolishness a self-fulfilling prophesy.