Daybreak Sues The Heroes Journey EQ EMU Server Devs

xmod2

xmod2

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Torrid said:
When Daybreak changes the game over time, this is damaging the cultural artifact. It's like rewriting an old masterpiece of literature for a modern audience. I tried to save EQ from being erased. Modern EQ is not real EQ to me. If they kept a real classic server running then Project 1999 and TAKP wouldn't need to exist.
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The fact that on every TLP, we still get the aids ridden Prophecy of Ro versions of the zones is a good example of this. DBG is unwilling or incapable of providing the product nostalgia chasers really want.
 
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Control

Control

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Torrid said:
I worked on EQ emus for 10 years so here's my take.

I don't blame Daybreak for shutting down emus that are profiting from their IP like this. Some of us emu guys are mad because they're not only profiting from Daybreak's assets but also our emu dev work. They broke the big rule. This brings heat down on all of us. The reason why there are not many more emu servers is BECAUSE we can't profit from them, and even if we could legally it's still a shitty thing to do. THJ's contributions to their own server/game amount to like 3% of the total code and asset base. Make up any number you like here but it's a single digit for sure.

I however do not like long copyrights. I would generally agree that EQ's earliest eras should be public domain by now, however THJ is using a much more modern client. The server wouldn't exist if the modern clients weren't available. Thanks to evil Disney copyrights last an eternity so that's the law.

My motivation for spending so much time on the emus is to preserve the game before it's lost forever. I consider myself a game preservationist/archeologist first and foremost. Most of my work is server agnostic and just researching how the game worked at a highly detailed level, and collecting mob stats. (I'm mostly retired from this) Daybreak is a company and thus only concerned about profit. EQ to me is a great cultural artifact that requires preservation. I want people 1000 years from now to be able to play it as it was like in 1999. When Daybreak changes the game over time, this is damaging the cultural artifact. It's like rewriting an old masterpiece of literature for a modern audience. I tried to save EQ from being erased. Modern EQ is not real EQ to me. If they kept a real classic server running then Project 1999 and TAKP wouldn't need to exist.

I did receive some donations for my emu work. The sum amounted to a very rough estimate of less than 10 cents an hour for my labor if you count every hour from 2013, which I would have done regardless. I never asked for a donation; people just offered unsolicited. I do think small unsolicited donations are fine and hopefully this doesn't make me a hypocrite. Anyway, hopefully Daybreak's lawyers don't go crazy with the litigation, because there are no winners in that scenario.
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Yeah, that's basically why I started VoG. I just wanted a "safe" place to play some real-ish eq when I wanted that wasn't mired under an ever increasing stack of bullshit that each new batch of clueless devs/execs decided to throw on top. (The first 10 or 20 of those layers were plenty, lol!) It was up for around 9 years I think. Never took any donations, although I was surprised to see that some people offered pretty insistently. I finally let it slide a few months ago when the datacenter decommissioned the line of servers that I was on and didn't offer to auto-migrate me. They did give a year of notice for the shutdown, but then they raised the price to try and push everyone off, shady fucks... I thought about moving elsewhere but realized that I hadn't logged in in so long that I didn't really want to deal with it. So I let it die and waited to see if anyone complained, but no one did. Probably for the best since this lawsuit has to make any current emu-runner a bit uneasy.
 
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moonarchia

moonarchia

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Drakurii said:
It's actually shocking that people are firing up these servers without getting permission.
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The outcome of this case is probably going to alter that one way or the other. If THJ gets to buy a license or some other agreement that lets most of the money go to DBG while keeping enough to employ a dev or two, you might see a lot of big ideas getting floated around and put out there with people looking to actually sign up with DBG up front. In an ideal world this would let people get access to the current code and dev tools DBG uses for their shit tier xpac copypastas, and the community could overhaul it for them. More likely is DBG takes all the money THJ has gotten and the server is going to be a nice memory.
 
T

Torrid

Molten Core Raider
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I would help Daybreak with a true classic server for free.

I would also love to see some kind of profit sharing arrangement with studios and amateurs which allow for an explosion of creativity of game design but I understand that's not very realistic unless the game from the ground up was intended for this purpose which nothing is yet.
 
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Old Man Potter

Old Man Potter

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xmod2 said:
The fact that on every TLP, we still get the aids ridden Prophecy of Ro versions of the zones is a good example of this. DBG is unwilling or incapable of providing the product nostalgia chasers really want.
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The current EQ devs fundamentally do not understand and appreciate what made EverQuest great.
 
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W

Wynt

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Soo.. They going to go after the aoer plers next who (allegedly) made more than dpg on teek launch after THJ?
 
xmod2

xmod2

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Yeah, the GMs get paid so little as it is, you're going to take away their supplemental income as well?
 
Kirun

Kirun

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Wynt said:
Soo.. They going to go after the aoer plers next who (allegedly) made more than dpg on teek launch after THJ?
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Hey! Certain profiting off of the EQ IP is a-ok. But not the kind that makes us look like fools to the suits, ok?! Especially when we have to answer for it in our quarterly Zoom meeting about why this year's TLP release was such a dud.
 
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Runnen

Runnen

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Araxen said:
WTF is that room color.
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Dude lives in Felwithe.

hqdefault.jpg
 
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Goonsquad Officer
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Asmadai said:
Doesn't like, almost every EMU server for EQ out there have some sort of RMT donation that nets you in-game items/benefits in some way?

Or is this different?
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its small, but dalaya seems to not take any sort of donations. they have some one hosting their server and don't take any money.

So SOME seem to just exist to exist.
 
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Chanur

Chanur

Shit Posting Professional
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Koushirou said:
Saw they were advertising engineering positions, so figured I'd at least look since I lost my job. $40-60k range for software engineers in fucking San Diego, lol. Get the fuck out of here.
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You too can live in a cardboard box and work on EQ!
 
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