New efforts!

[Azrael]

Sure, but NCSoft would never be able to prove which former employee did it.

*Smiles gently.

Azrael.

PS.  From said link.

"9. Lineage II
This entry inspires a bit of resentment that I realize is entirely unreasonable because Lineage II has passed the decade mark when City of Heroes never got the chance. And since both of them are tied to NCsoft, well, there's my dose of silly bitterness that I am aware is based on absolutely nothing."

*Raises a glass.  Here's to bitterness. :P

[FloatingFatMan]

*Smiles gently.

Azrael.

It could even be someone who worked in the datacenter that hosted the game. ;)

[Azrael]

It could even be someone who worked in the datacenter that hosted the game. ;)

*serene look.   :)

Azrael.

[FloatingFatMan]

*serene look.   :)

Azrael.

Look, just gimme the server software so I can clean out any dev names and leak it on Pirate Bay, will ya? :P

[Noyjitat]

*Smiles gently.

Azrael.

PS.  From said link.

"9. Lineage II
This entry inspires a bit of resentment that I realize is entirely unreasonable because Lineage II has passed the decade mark when City of Heroes never got the chance. And since both of them are tied to NCsoft, well, there's my dose of silly bitterness that I am aware is based on absolutely nothing."



*Raises a glass.  Here's to bitterness. :P

Let's not forget guildwars 1 was also allowed to remain in maintenance mode. So it really is stupid that we got the shaft.

[Felderburg]

Can't put out a C&D for software you didn't create :) even if it talks to software you did create (and people legit purchased).

Based on posts in the new Tabula Rasa emulator (Infinite Rasa) that actually is an issue. They're rebuilding the launcher from scratch, as it was the use of the NCsoft-created launcher that allowed the legal take down.

[Azrael]

Based on posts in the new Tabula Rasa emulator (Infinite Rasa) that actually is an issue. They're rebuilding the launcher from scratch, as it was the use of the NCsoft-created launcher that allowed the legal take down.

How come Tabula Rasa (Infinite Rasa) gets an emulator and CoH doesn't?

Do the MMO gods have something against CoH? 

Azrael.

[Felderburg]

How come Tabula Rasa (Infinite Rasa) gets an emulator and CoH doesn't?

Do the MMO gods have something against CoH? 

Azrael.

Because people have been working on it? I don't know. Auto Assault also has an emulator effort, with no actual game yet (as far as I know).

It's worth noting that CoH did have the Segs emulator, so there's that.

[Angel Phoenix77]

Strange.  15k signatures and they get a classic server.  Try asking that question for CoH and we could bury that figure!

CoH had 100k players.  And probably a good dollop of them funded City of Titans kickstarter.  The CoH community has 3 'spiritual' successors.

CoH in i23 'classic' server mode would be printing money for them for NC Soft.  I'd be quite open to Cryptic taking it back and getting it up and running and putting a laser bullet in Champion's head.

I've seen many of the 'coming soon' TM MMOs for this year with their razzle dazzle graphics and 'cliche' play and I'm bemused.  As much so for the games like Lineage, WoW and others that still seem to get by while CoH is cocooned in the underworld of IP.

NC Soft.  Just ask the question. :P

Azrael.


Hmm.  I wonder if Cryptic could purchase and re-open CoH.  I quite like the idea of Jack Emmert being our 'Martyr' and 'Samaritan.' 

*Looks at NC Soft.



...and...

http://massivelyop.com/2015/05/07/perfect-ten-ten-mmos-still-going-after-ten-years/

It should be CoH on that list.

@Saint, that is very interesting :) One can only hope they do the same for City of. :)

@Azrael, I would like to think if Ncsoft did that for City of. they would get 15k in 10 min. More as time goes by.
Also would you really want Jack and pwe/cryptic really get their hands on City of.? Look at what they did to co and now to sto.

[FloatingFatMan]

@Azrael, I would like to think if Ncsoft did that for City of. they would get 15k in 10 min. More as time goes by.
Also would you really want Jack and pwe/cryptic really get their hands on City of.? Look at what they did to co and now to sto.

Jack didn't do anything to CO, he lost interest in that game years ago.  You can thank PWE for wrecking that game, as they do ALL their products.  Lockboxes and nerfs out the wazoo, every single one of them.

[Angel Phoenix77]

Jack didn't do anything to CO, he lost interest in that game years ago.  You can thank PWE for wrecking that game, as they do ALL their products.  Lockboxes and nerfs out the wazoo, every single one of them.

To me, I hold Jack very respond sable for the mess he made out of co. In the military it is the commanding officer that is held responsible for anything that happens. While I am not sure he is directly responsible he is however, responsible for what happens to the games under his watch. He could have said fix co before having the devs go to other games. All co got were interns or new hires. NowNow, cryptic is showing something of interest in co. which to me is far too little far to late, as seeing as I believe nothing will cause co to get any better and bring in the players. And that is Jacks fault.

[Arcana]

Sure, but NCSoft would never be able to prove which former employee did it.

Maybe, maybe not.  You'd be surprised the kinds of things I've discovered can give someone away.  I've caught people because their print to PDF drivers embedded timestamp data in their PDF metadata.  I've caught people because the creation timestamps in a set of files could be traced to the file copy speed of their workstation.  I've often caught people by venn diagram: they were simply the only person with access to all of the data leaked, at the time it was leaked, using the method leaked, after ruling out everyone else that satisfied those conditions.

People make mistakes all the time.  You're going to risk someone else's livelihood on the assumption of your infallibility?  I've actually done this kind of forensic investigation, and I know all the tricks, and I still wouldn't risk that.  Not when someone else is paying the price for me being wrong.  They would have to directly ask me to do it, knowing the possible consequences, and I would still be extremely cautious about trying.

[LaughingAlex]

To me, I hold Jack very respond sable for the mess he made out of co. In the military it is the commanding officer that is held responsible for anything that happens. While I am not sure he is directly responsible he is however, responsible for what happens to the games under his watch. He could have said fix co before having the devs go to other games. All co got were interns or new hires. NowNow, cryptic is showing something of interest in co. which to me is far too little far to late, as seeing as I believe nothing will cause co to get any better and bring in the players. And that is Jacks fault.

It's very telling, and saddening to me, to see the first thing Cryptic studios putting out is a costume that is about as fundamentally broken and ugly as it gets.  Even more telling that the creator of that costume idea is saying to scrap it, as releasing it in it's state so far from his design would be disrespectful to him.

[Arcana]

To me, I hold Jack very respond sable for the mess he made out of co. In the military it is the commanding officer that is held responsible for anything that happens. While I am not sure he is directly responsible he is however, responsible for what happens to the games under his watch. He could have said fix co before having the devs go to other games. All co got were interns or new hires. NowNow, cryptic is showing something of interest in co. which to me is far too little far to late, as seeing as I believe nothing will cause co to get any better and bring in the players. And that is Jacks fault.

If the commanding officer is always ultimately responsible, why then do you hold Jack responsible for everything that has happened to CO when Jack is not the head of Perfect World Entertainment?  In fact, to the best of my knowledge Jack has never been the ultimate "commanding officer" of Champions Online in that sense.  When Cryptic was creating CO, Jack was "chief creative officer" or something like that, which is probably a title functionally equivalent to "chief technology officer."  He almost certainly had a CEO or President over him at Cryptic.  Although he's now the CEO of Cryptic, Cryptic itself is now owned by PWE and he answers to them.  If the commanding officer is always ultimately responsible, then no matter how much Jack is identified as a design lead of CO, shouldn't his commanding officer be ultimately responsible for what he does?  That would be the president or CEO of Cryptic Studios until Atari bought them, then the CEO of Atari, then the CEO of Perfect World Entertainment (in Jack's Linkedin profile he specifically notes in his job description as CEO of Cryptic that he reported to those two individuals as part of his job).

[Angel Phoenix77]

If the commanding officer is always ultimately responsible, why then do you hold Jack responsible for everything that has happened to CO when Jack is not the head of Perfect World Entertainment?  In fact, to the best of my knowledge Jack has never been the ultimate "commanding officer" of Champions Online in that sense.  When Cryptic was creating CO, Jack was "chief creative officer" or something like that, which is probably a title functionally equivalent to "chief technology officer."  He almost certainly had a CEO or President over him at Cryptic.  Although he's now the CEO of Cryptic, Cryptic itself is now owned by PWE and he answers to them.  If the commanding officer is always ultimately responsible, then no matter how much Jack is identified as a design lead of CO, shouldn't his commanding officer be ultimately responsible for what he does?  That would be the president or CEO of Cryptic Studios until Atari bought them, then the CEO of Atari, then the CEO of Perfect World Entertainment (in Jack's Linkedin profile he specifically notes in his job description as CEO of Cryptic that he reported to those two individuals as part of his job).

I understand what you are writing. However, I never said he was in charge of pwe. I admit that I may have been vague in that distribution. Jack is responsible for everything that does happen at cryptic, while he might get permission from the higher ups at pwe. What happened to co was on his watch as much as any other game at cryptic. Again I will agree with you he may have the cto for cryptic, but wasn't he promoted 4 years ago? If that if a yes then, he is/was responsible for anything that did/does happen.

[Arcana]

I understand what you are writing. However, I never said he was in charge of pwe. I admit that I may have been vague in that distribution. Jack is responsible for everything that does happen at cryptic, while he might get permission from the higher ups at pwe. What happened to co was on his watch as much as any other game at cryptic. Again I will agree with you he may have the cto for cryptic, but wasn't he promoted 4 years ago? If that if a yes then, he is/was responsible for anything that did/does happen.

When CO was being created, Jack was chief creative officer for Cryptic.  That meant he was basically in charge of game design.  He had a CEO over him, who was responsible for all of Cryptic.  He was promoted to CEO in 2011, *after* the Atari acquisition and long after he turned over responsibility of CO to supervise work on STO, and then NWN.  Under the theory of commanding officers being responsible, shouldn't the president/CEO of Cryptic during the formative years of CO be responsible for the problems CO had during those times?  And specifically Jack was not CEO when the event you questioned occurred, when the focus shifted from CO to STO.

[Azrael]

Also would you really want Jack

Yes. 

...and there's the saying, 'You never go back...'  (ie.  Unlikely to happen.)

He was largely responsible the for CoH game as it landed.  A happy accident?  Maybe.  But he deserves some credit for that.  A design leadership(?) that saw a tricky and ambitious gestation period reign in its ambitions to the game we know and love.  So, I'd say he was 'chiefly responsible' for the game we regard so highly. 

Lightning rarely strikes twice?  Or capturing lightning in a bottle 'twice' exceptionally hard.  The odds are against you.  Wasn't CoH largely created in the same sort of time frame as Champions? 

ie.  You win some.  You lose some.

Azrael.

PS. 

Because people have been working on it? I don't know. Auto Assault also has an emulator effort, with no actual game yet (as far as I know).

Are NC Soft 'ok' with this if the change the game launcher?  Why wouldn't it be the same for CoH?  Starwars Galaxies gets an emu?  There's quite a handful of relatively recent examples that suggest the landscape is changing in CoH's favour.  Some companies are even being 'ok' with communities who want 'their game' from a certain era and doing PR straight from their web page.

For games that are 'old' but have a dedicated following it would be better for community / corporate relations if a community server project can keep said games 'alive.'  A good will gesture that would keep the fans as potential customers.

[Aggelakis]

Really? I get the feeling SCORE doesn't exist and you all just got trolled.

Uh, Titan really does have a few people working on reverse engineering stuff. We can count them on one hand, though, and they have full-time jobs, so you'll have to forgive them if they can only put a few hours of work a week (sometimes no work at all) into the project. Don't be a jackass.

[Noyjitat]

Swg has several emulators actually. With swgemu being the most active and most complete. Im waiting on project swgnge so I can continue where the live game left off. Yes, I enjoyed nge combat and Jedi more than the classic Hologrind and such.

[Joshex]

Uh, Titan really does have a few people working on reverse engineering stuff. We can count them on one hand, though, and they have full-time jobs, so you'll have to forgive them if they can only put a few hours of work a week (sometimes no work at all) into the project. Don't be a jackass.

I'll be honest, I want to do one, but I have no time. geometry is the hardest part and the spawn points may never be exactly the same in any finished servers.

also sorry about the troll post, guess that was a bad idea.