That is the problem isn't it.
When you have the chance to do something selfless or to keep it for yourself - what would you do? I think i would get a few people in the world of computing and have them make a launcher that could be hosted on a standard gaming server (www.serversaustralia.com.au/resources/blog/beginners-guide-to-setting-up-a-private-wow-server/) where you can normally rent them for about 1 American dollar per slot a month. If you wanted an entire server you might be able to work a discount.
Now what happens?
That is going to be up to NCSoft and the owners of the private server. If they want to contact me - I retire in August and would be happy to try hosting a wide open server that could test the limits of NCSofts patience and I would in fact have wide open books so they could see I make zero profit - but have a donation page that will give all extra funds beyond running expenses to them in a monthly check. This MIGHT allow some leeway on our behalf.
Intriguing idea.
I guess the more people that had it, legal 'whack a mole' would be hard to chase CoH private servers breeding like rabbits... (Though, of course, I'm not suggesting they drop a hydrogen bomb by releasing private servers in Argentina..., Ecuador...and...)
It is interesting that Nostralius (by sheer volume of numbers, 1 million peak?) brought Blizzard to the negotiating table with their private server. Such was the demand for 'Vanilla' WoW. (For me the equivalent would be pre: issue 4 even though, of course SCORE are settled on issue 24 and who would say 'no' to insta-snipe, eh?)
I still can't fathom that CoH never had a million players. It's better than WoW. I've played WoW a lot in CoH's absence in the last couple of years. Kudos to them for pushing the envelope on it. But I never found the combat or community or mobbing a patch on CoH.
Still, the mere idea that CoH has been living a secret life, sipping a margarita and wearing a straw hat on some exotic sandy shore somewhere on the dark web...
...a day of celebration.
Azrael.
