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"What next? How about EA "endorsed" fan forums?"

You're clearly out of the loop here.

Ever hear of Stratics? They're an EA "endorsed" fan forum. In fact, they're the "official" Ultima Online forums. What EA says pretty much goes there, and the rules are parallel to EA's rules.

http://uo.stratics.com/

"We are aware that an individual claims to have access to the source code of the EVE client, but this access is not a security risk to CCP or our customers in any way. The Python scripting language that is used by the client can be easily decompiled to generate readable code, and we have designed our server-side systems with that understanding. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that the code was leaked by an employee and our internal investigations confirm that. Access to the source code for the EVE client exposes no security vulnerabilities, has no privacy protection issues, and poses no threat to our customers billing information. The server-side interface used by the client is carefully protected to ensure that no abusive or unwanted information is transmitted to or from the EVE system." - CCP Wrangler Source: http://eve.stratics.com/#27221

You can find me in this game.

Well, OK, maybe not me--but you can find a NPC with my name. What happened is, one of the game designers is on another website I frequent, and as you can imagine, you have to name a LOT Of characters when you're writing an MMORPG. He asked for volunteers who were willing to donate their names to the cause. I stepped forward, and the result is that one Corporal Sager Weinstein can be found fighting for humanity, somewhere on the planet Areiki.

The best part: another friend of mine also has an NPC named after him, but he's a lowly Private. I outrank him.

I do not intend to let him forget this.

People like to point out that other games came before UO, and that it isn't the "first" MMO.
To those people, I remind you (cough) that UO was the first MMO to be a major success: to hit 100k subscribers, setting the standard for judging MMO success for years to come.

It brought a world to life, introduced an entire generation to a new way of playing online, and opened the doors for games like EQ, DAOC and WOW.
It brought joy to hundreds of thousands, and frustration, and angst and anger and every other emotion one could think of.
It brought people together and foreshadowed the massive impact the internet could have on our social lives.

Oh, and it was fun too! Between 97 and 99 for some, between 2000 and 2003 for others, and even in 2007 today.

So, here's to the longest running, continuous, subscription based MMO - here's to another 10 years!

For anyone who wants to see where UO is going, check out some screenshots of the new client:
http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/uo/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=uouhall&Number=7421553&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=all&what2=postlist

Quote from the Slashdot article: "Even if new features won't get you to upgrade to Vista, you should buy Vista for the security, urged Windows Chief Jim Allchin."

Most people don't know that there is no actual person named Allchin. That is just a nickname for Jabba the Hutt, All Chin.

When he is not assuring that their will be terrible security vulnerabilities in the present version of Windows, so that Microsoft will be able to sell the next version, Mr. "AllChin" Hutt eats cute squeaky live animals.

I want you to know that this comment has the same editorial accuracy for which Slashdot is famous.

There was an online poll at swg.stratics.com, which was heavily skewed against the NGE.

This Thread on the official forums contains the efforts of SOE CSR Raijin to first debunk the authenticity of the poll, and then subsequently admit to spamming the vote in order to further his employee's agenda.

This is a shameful breach of ethics, but how can we expect a Sony employee to possess any, given their history of Astroturfing is on the record.

Never trust a single word a Sony Employee says. And never pay them a single cent more.

Compare and Constrast

Definitely a Wookey connection somewhere...

This is what tons and tons of Ultima Online players (especially former players) say. Go on any UO-related forums and look for the complaints about the game... for instance not long ago they made it so you can no longer skip the intro logo movies of the EA logo with the stupid kid saying "challenge everything", and the Origin logo (umm why the hell are they showing me the intro logo animation of a company that doesn't even exist anymore?)....

Like, hey assholes, I already bought your game. You don't need to tell me every fucking time I open it who made the game. I already know. Your logo is all over the package, and the game, and the installer, and the manuals, and the website...

Also their in-game support is absolutely useless, and the tech support guys give you the complete "runaround" every time. *No matter what*, I've always gotten a canned, copy&paste response, or at least the same basic phrases over and over. "Game masters can not return lost items, please refer to [whatever Help URL] for more information." Hey, I didn't ask to get my item back, I'm just saying my stuff keeps disappearing, so fix the bug, retard. Address the fucking problems and maybe you won't have people quitting on a daily basis.

Instead they just spend all their time making new retarded addons for the game, which are 100% money grabs. No one gives a shit about your "Samurai Empire", what we really want is for BUGS TO BE FIXED. How many nifty little places there are is irrelevant. The UO world is already HUGE. People are perfectly happy with the existing one.

But I guess fixing bugs just doesn't get them enough immediate profit. In the long run they'd get far more users because the game would always work properly, and friends of players would be a little more impressed. I guess the EA fools are just too short-sighted to realize this...

Oh, and now they just started this "Return to UO for free" thing for people who have closed accounts (as in, stopped playing indefinitely). http://www.uo.com/return.html

Obviously a huge money grab, since they want the old players to come back and start playing again.

Anyway I'm ditching my account once the current paid-for period runs out. I'm sick of the way EA just screws around and only cares about their profits. I guess driving anything other than a late-model Jaguar or BMW is out of the question for their corporate exec's.

One of the biggest recent controversies that pissed off a huge huge number of UO players: EA offered a 7th Anniversary gift item (very valuable in game) because it was the 7th year anniversary of UO's existence. The 6 years before these items have been given in-game for free, automatically. The item would just be there in your inventory when you logged in. This time they conveniently decided you had to click a box in your player settings that says "It is OK for EA and its worldwide affiliates to contact me about EA products, news and events, special offers, and other information." ... Then you'd receive the game code for the gift item in your email, eventually, when they sent the codes out.

Forum thread where this was announced: http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/uo/showthreaded .php?Cat=&Board=uouhall&Number=5237256&page=4&view =collapsed&sb=5&o=&vc=1&what2=postlistdev&selv=&vw hich=

Needless to say many many people were pissed off. It was simply a way for EA to advertise to you even more, and it was very immoral because they were basically bribing users. In fact, that's exactly what it was. If you want the item, you have to receive their spam. There was NO REASON they couldn't just give the item to you in-game as they have f

This reminds me of how the employees of Origin Software held a big bonfire after the company died. Instead of code, they burned the Ultima Online 2 schedules and design docs.

Story here: http://www.stratics.com/content/news/arc2-2001.sht ml

The main story has the link to Detritus' content incorrect, this is the correct link
All I can say is this is truly an amazing game, I am currently in the Alpha and have been for almost a year. For those of you that have avoided the MMoRPG scene because, this is the one you want to try. The graphics are simply amazing, but more importantly it actually has fun PvP. Arena.net has done their best to elminate the "unfun" parts of most games, the most obvious being the infamous level grind. So far it looks like the process to level from 1 to max (currently 20) only takes a few weeks. While the PvE is fun, the focus is PvP and the game is balanced for team PvP. Also of note the Word Preview Event has started a day early, so those who want to play can jump in now.

A good post. Play it, see how you like it. I love the game, myself. Anyway, if you truely are looking for some information on Horizons, here are a few resources.

http://www.istaria.com/
http://www.tazoon.com/releaseforums/ - Fansite message boards with lots of current information
http://hz.stratics.com/A fansite with some decent current info and message boards.
http://www.dragonspires.org/wiki/ A wiki in the infant stages of development with some information of use.

I think it's worse than that - you have to be into the whole MMORPG thing to put up with dreck like Evercrack.

RPGs are fun - Wizardry Gold, Ultima IV, and so on.

IF is fun - Infocom games are all about role-playing, after all, and by using words to describe mental states, can provide similarly immersive experiences.

MMORPGs are intrinsically un-fun. It's all about repeatedly pressing the same buttons to get the XP to get to the next level to... but there is no goal. Other than to keep paying your monthly subscription fee.

That fee could go into designing content to rival the best single-player RPGs, and adding it to the game every month.

But it doesn't. It's cheaper to keep the money and lengthen the treadmill -- because people like the guy you described are happy to grind mindlessly on the treadmill for days, weeks, months on end, and the MMORPG company can pocket the change. Why write a good story into a game if you can make the same amount of money by catering to a playerbase drooling fucknozzles who'll pay you not to write a story?

SOE's other masterpiece, Star Wars Galaxies, is the same formula as Evercrack with a Star Wars skin around it, and even longer grind cycle. Other MMORPGs are fundamentally the same at heart.

Players are finally waking up to this, and are demanding fun for their dollar. Which probably explains why more and more MMORPGs are failing or being cancelled before release. Thank God.

Just in case you forgot to read the top of the page...

Thanks to an anonymous reader for suggesting abstruse information on Ultima creator Richard Garriott's mysterious new MMORPG, Tabula Rasa, as referenced in a recent Slashdot Games post dealing with Korean MMO behemoth NCSoft, who purchased the nascent game for "$33.4 million in stock and cash" back in 2001. An online chat transcript from early 2003 noted that "many people that worked on [cancelled MMO Ultima Online 2] are now with NCsoft working on Tabula Rasa", and more recently, a Richard Garriott lecture at the Austin Game Conference mentioned that the game "will most likely utilize a massively multiplayer metaworld for player matching and instantiated spaces for smaller groups of matched players", but almost nothing about the game has yet been revealed. The clearest indication yet comes from several recently-posted pieces of concept art, as noted earlier this week, showing an alien planet called Eera as the main setting, and mentioning such oddities as "Eeran Wastelanders [which] will
beguile you with psychic hallucinations."

FP

Anyone else wondery why game includes a picture of nVidia's "Dawn" girl?
Screenshot 11

Actually, there is quite a glut. I say the more the merrier!

List of MMOGs

My biggest problem with it was that they turned PVP into an uberness-of-your-items game instead of a skill game. But I only played for PVP. The non PVPers seem to be having even more problems. Read the forums at Stratics.

After all, with items like the MagRider and the Pulsar, who could live to disagree?

After all, with items like the MagRider and the Pulsar, who could live to disagree?

There is a Yahoo! Group, the Allakhazam forum, SWG Warcry, the Stratics SWG board, and even the Lucasforums boards, among quite a few others. If you're thinking of learning more about the game, don't let Sony stiff-arm you, visit one of the other forums and start reading.

Hmm. The GameSpy preview has a bunch of screenshots attached. The UXO Stratics page has a big screenshots archive. Not sure there's a lack of screenshots to complain about?

These illustrate very nicely how much you can do with good editing and music, even if the visuals are limited somewhat by the game engine.

I was looking forward to playing SWG too and have been waiting for a MMORPG to truly immerse myself in since I was too late to join UO and EQ. I had high hopes for SWG and I was surprised Sony lifted the NDA before the game was actually released. Once the NDA was released I checked out the Sony Station boards for SWG which already had some reviews posted by the beta testers.

The beta testers' reviews of SWG weren't complimentary at all. There were a lot of negative posts and the most damaging evidence of that is how Sony has removed access to the old message boards (http://boards2.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars). However, forums at SWG fan sites have preserved some of these original, honest reviews. Check it out: SWG Fan Site with Honest Review Deleted by Sony. My compliments to Stratics.com. And I'm sure other SWG fan sites will have honest reviews too.

Seeing as how EA has been getting a record number of people complaining and quitting from their recent Ultima Online rate hike, I can see why EA is looking for a corporate partner to lean on.

I wonder if the traffic can be correlated back to the actual number of "transactions" that are being done on the Internet? Like when I visit a website, a lot of the traffic (large banners, pop-up, etc) aren't really what I am doing or after.

Is this simply a bandwith increase or are we talking about more real transactions? Probablly a bit of both...

I've played UO for around, oh, nearly 5 years now. So I feel I'm justified to "speak on this".

The characters these people are buying....are crap. I'm sorry, but give someone who read UO Stratics under a week and their characters will be up to that par. However, recent modifications to the stat" system (strength/dexterity/intelligence) make it so you can gain a maximum of 6 points a day. So, to theoretically reach your maximum of 225, you would have to play for over 30 days, while spending 2-3 hours of those days working on your statistics. That's what players will be paying for.

Of more interest to me is that name changes, which players have begged for throughout UO's entire existance, are now being offered at a pay cost.

Furthermore, in response to your "UO is dying" tirade. Please, save it. UO2's development was ceased because it would have resulted in the desertion of the original Ultima's servers, which Origin would no doubt continue paying for until the numbers had dwindled enough. Take one look at Meridian 59 and realise that for the entire crowd to dissipate, it may take awhile.

What's been happening to UO recently is the idea of changing the game to a stage where it can become a new game entirely. The extremely flawed 3D adaption of the game was first, that failed due to the fact it was buggy, slow and ugly. Rumoured on the horizon is a first person (ala EverQuest) 3D adaption of Ultima with a new landmass designed especially for it. Currently there have been 2 expansion landmasses, with a third on it's way around Christmas. UO isn't going down anytime soon.

Oh, and Lord British is working on that horrible "Lineage" game with the girl who made the female "UNGH" noises in Quake 2 (Who is also responsible for many of the problems UO has today, as the former head of design).

As in the story here this is another example that im sure will be ridaculed from those that do not play online games or dislike them.. but here it is :)* As with any online game Dark Age of Camelot has built a community of close friends, but in this instance over 800 users from 3 different Realms (sides or teams of the server) gathered in total peace for over 2 hrs to Tribute the death of a fallen friend. Thanks to the Order of Imperial Knights (MMORPG GUILD) for the video. Shortly after Italian servers also held a tribute for Bruic Elfslayer of Forsaken Guard (MMORPG Guild) Rest well Bruic, Well miss ya -Percival Server Community

Totally patently FALSE. Here's some references:

• 1999: Dungeon Masters moderating online games will be able to create their own scenarios using BioWare's Solstice Toolset.
• 2000: From the very start of our development cycle, we have been designing Neverwinter Nights not only to be multiplatform but also to be fully interoperable between the different OS versions," says Oster. "We want a Be OS player and her Windows friend to be able to play together on a Mac server under the guidance of a Linux-based dungeon master.
• 2000: Neverwinter Nights will support the Windows, Mac, Linux, and the ever-popular BeOS operating systems, and all versions will be completely interoperable.
• 2001: * The powerful and user-friendly Neverwinter Aurora Toolset allows players to create entirely new adventures, campaigns, and worlds of their own devising. The toolset is a major features of the title and will receive full post-product support. * Single-box release across multiple Operating Systems (Windows, Linux, Macintosh and BeOS). All versions will be fully interoperable.
• 2001: So the big question in everyone's minds seems to be "Why did you wait this long to tell us that the toolset is Windows-only?" That's a fair question and the honest answer is that we didn't know, we still don't know. [...] The truth is that we want our toolset to be available on all platforms.
• 2002 (right now): We are planning a simultaneous PC/Macintosh/Linux release for Neverwinter Nights, with all three versions to be included in a single box.

Sierra shafted it when it was rather late in production, and refused to say why - hell, they didn't even admit they had cancelled it for months after they fired the dev team.

This link has more, although it seems to have been written quite recently, doesn't go into much detail, and has a slightly different memory of the events than I do.

Actually, Asheron's Call is the only reason that I still have a Windows Partition anymore on my main box at home. All joking aside, its a GREAT game. It wasn't developed my Microsoft, nor is it managed by them, but by a company called Turbine. If you'd like to learn more about this addiction, feel free to browse some of my favorite fan sites, Crossroads of Dereth or Asheron's Call Stratics. Of course you can also check my guilds site which I administer, called Strife.

• Implement the vet rewards!
• Look at all the TODO items. Start implementing the easiest ones. This shows people that they are listening to the players.
• When a patch gets released, SAY what was fixed/changed!
• Read through the stratics forums, looking at all bugs, AND gameplay elements that are frustrating players. Start making changes!
• Start adding in a TON of VARIETY for the magic weapons. EQ and Diablo2 have this area down pat. Set items, socketable items, etc. A game must provide lots of "toys" !
• Add new spells! Again, MUCH more variety in EQ and D2.
• Fix the servers so they do running backups every 15 mins. If I ran servers the way OSI does, I'd be fired in 30 mins. Servers go down hapharzardly (not as bad as b.net) Get the servers with 99.999% uptime.
  

• Take a poll from CURRENT PLAYERS, asking them what they would like to see in the current game. Then DO IT! This is how you keep a community strong.

The primary issues facing Undernet, Dalnet and EFNet is that they give the script kiddies all the information they need to launch savage DDOS attacks. The IRC networks give out to any interested party the IP addresses of the servers, the IP addresses of the hubs, and finally they give out the IP addresses of the end users. When you provide the keys in a manner such as this, expect someone to try them in the lock.

The first step to resolving this is IP mirroring. Unless you are an irc operator, you see your own IP address on each server and each user on the network. This removes the first bit the user needs for a massive disruption of the network. Ircops need to be able to see the hostmask in order to protect the servers from the misdeeds of users.

The next step in protecting your irc network is to have no publicly listed server connecting to any other publicly listed server. All hubs should be ircop only. This makes it so that the hubs the all-important links to the edge of your network are hidden from public and from the hackers view.

Now in order to make the task more difficult simply give out only one hostname that all users will use in order to connect. Each server would be required to take users if the resources are available for them. Local users to a server would of course have priority. The single hostname may not totally protect your network however it will ensure the hackers have to work a bit harder to get the information on the server they are using to connect. No offense to any serious hackers out there is intended however script kiddies are by and by lazy creatures.

These measures will not protect the average user who accepts CTCP chats or DCC's however those who do not should have total immunity from the script kiddies.

In order to provide channel operators with a modicum of control in their channels have a bot that can see host masks and accepts ban commands via private messages giving the users nick. The bot would only allow the ban if the user issuing the command is a channel operator in the channel they are requesting the ban for.

You could also get smart and use channel services. Channel services while it might rile some of the ircops who see channel ownership as a bad thing. However a private ownership of a channel once created and registered tends to make sure that there is no point in attempting to split servers from the network in order to try to take control of a channel. If you do not like ownership of channels simply, decide on a very short-term idle channel deletion. If a channel is popular enough to have people online 24x7 then they have the right to decide who controls their community.

Many IRC networks and services packages implement these security-improving provisions already. You can look at Stratics IRC Network which while small has a very effective implementation . Stratics IRC is a gaming related network offering these features.

The primary issues facing Undernet, Dalnet and EFNet is that they give the script kiddies all the information they need to launch savage DDOS attacks. The IRC networks give out to any interested party the IP addresses of the servers, the IP addresses of the hubs, and finally they give out the IP addresses of the end users. When you provide the keys in a manner such as this, expect someone to try them in the lock.

The first step to resolving this is IP mirroring. Unless you are an irc operator, you see your own IP address on each server and each user on the network. This removes the first bit the user needs for a massive disruption of the network. Ircops need to be able to see the hostmask in order to protect the servers from the misdeeds of users.

The next step in protecting your irc network is to have no publicly listed server connecting to any other publicly listed server. All hubs should be ircop only. This makes it so that the hubs the all-important links to the edge of your network are hidden from public and from the hackers view.

Now in order to make the task more difficult simply give out only one hostname that all users will use in order to connect. Each server would be required to take users if the resources are available for them. Local users to a server would of course have priority. The single hostname may not totally protect your network however it will ensure the hackers have to work a bit harder to get the information on the server they are using to connect. No offense to any serious hackers out there is intended however script kiddies are by and by lazy creatures.

These measures will not protect the average user who accepts CTCP chats or DCC's however those who do not should have total immunity from the script kiddies.

In order to provide channel operators with a modicum of control in their channels have a bot that can see host masks and accepts ban commands via private messages giving the users nick. The bot would only allow the ban if the user issuing the command is a channel operator in the channel they are requesting the ban for.

You could also get smart and use channel services. Channel services while it might rile some of the ircops who see channel ownership as a bad thing. However a private ownership of a channel once created and registered tends to make sure that there is no point in attempting to split servers from the network in order to try to take control of a channel. If you do not like ownership of channels simply, decide on a very short-term idle channel deletion. If a channel is popular enough to have people online 24x7 then they have the right to decide who controls their community.

Many IRC networks and services packages implement these security-improving provisions already. You can look at Stratics IRC Network which while small has a very effective implementation . Stratics IRC is a gaming related network offering these features.

The primary issues facing Undernet, Dalnet and EFNet is that they give the script kiddies all the information they need to launch savage DDOS attacks. The IRC networks give out to any interested party the IP addresses of the servers, the IP addresses of the hubs, and finally they give out the IP addresses of the end users. When you provide the keys in a manner such as this, expect someone to try them in the lock.

The first step to resolving this is IP mirroring. Unless you are an irc operator, you see your own IP address on each server and each user on the network. This removes the first bit the user needs for a massive disruption of the network. Ircops need to be able to see the hostmask in order to protect the servers from the misdeeds of users.

The next step in protecting your irc network is to have no publicly listed server connecting to any other publicly listed server. All hubs should be ircop only. This makes it so that the hubs the all-important links to the edge of your network are hidden from public and from the hackers view.

Now in order to make the task more difficult simply give out only one hostname that all users will use in order to connect. Each server would be required to take users if the resources are available for them. Local users to a server would of course have priority. The single hostname may not totally protect your network however it will ensure the hackers have to work a bit harder to get the information on the server they are using to connect. No offense to any serious hackers out there is intended however script kiddies are by and by lazy creatures.

These measures will not protect the average user who accepts CTCP chats or DCC's however those who do not should have total immunity from the script kiddies.

In order to provide channel operators with a modicum of control in their channels have a bot that can see host masks and accepts ban commands via private messages giving the users nick. The bot would only allow the ban if the user issuing the command is a channel operator in the channel they are requesting the ban for.

You could also get smart and use channel services. Channel services while it might rile some of the ircops who see channel ownership as a bad thing. However a private ownership of a channel once created and registered tends to make sure that there is no point in attempting to split servers from the network in order to try to take control of a channel. If you do not like ownership of channels simply, decide on a very short-term idle channel deletion. If a channel is popular enough to have people online 24x7 then they have the right to decide who controls their community.

Many IRC networks and services packages implement these security-improving provisions already. You can look at Stratics IRC Network which while small has a very effective implementation . Stratics IRC is a gaming related network offering these features.

The primary issues facing Undernet, Dalnet and EFNet is that they give the script kiddies all the information they need to launch savage DDOS attacks. The IRC networks give out to any interested party the IP addresses of the servers, the IP addresses of the hubs, and finally they give out the IP addresses of the end users. When you provide the keys in a manner such as this, expect someone to try them in the lock.

The first step to resolving this is IP mirroring. Unless you are an irc operator, you see your own IP address on each server and each user on the network. This removes the first bit the user needs for a massive disruption of the network. Ircops need to be able to see the hostmask in order to protect the servers from the misdeeds of users.

The next step in protecting your irc network is to have no publicly listed server connecting to any other publicly listed server. All hubs should be ircop only. This makes it so that the hubs the all-important links to the edge of your network are hidden from public and from the hackers view.

Now in order to make the task more difficult simply give out only one hostname that all users will use in order to connect. Each server would be required to take users if the resources are available for them. Local users to a server would of course have priority. The single hostname may not totally protect your network however it will ensure the hackers have to work a bit harder to get the information on the server they are using to connect. No offense to any serious hackers out there is intended however script kiddies are by and by lazy creatures.

These measures will not protect the average user who accepts CTCP chats or DCC's however those who do not should have total immunity from the script kiddies.

In order to provide channel operators with a modicum of control in their channels have a bot that can see host masks and accepts ban commands via private messages giving the users nick. The bot would only allow the ban if the user issuing the command is a channel operator in the channel they are requesting the ban for.

You could also get smart and use channel services. Channel services while it might rile some of the ircops who see channel ownership as a bad thing. However a private ownership of a channel once created and registered tends to make sure that there is no point in attempting to split servers from the network in order to try to take control of a channel. If you do not like ownership of channels simply, decide on a very short-term idle channel deletion. If a channel is popular enough to have people online 24x7 then they have the right to decide who controls their community.

Many IRC networks and services packages implement these security-improving provisions already. You can look at Stratics IRC Network which while small has a very effective implementation . Stratics IRC is a gaming related network offering these features.

The Linux port of Neverwinter Nights is old news. That announcement has been around since the game was announced. The BeOS port is news to me. Seeems that after the Infinity engine (The engine that powered Baldurs Gate, Planescape, Baldurs Gate II, Icewind Dale) Bioware has learned how to make portable code. (I've heard rumors that the Infinity code is a mess from a portabily standpoint)

There is a good reason to release a Linux version. Without a Linux version there would be a lack of player run servers. Take a look at just about any game that uses player run servers. Most of the servers are UNIX based. I'm sure BioWare is also aware that Linux gamers are hungry for a RPG that isn't nethack.

So far Neverwinter Nights looks great. Just check out this 19 part preview (Got your mpeg player ready?) from Neverwinter Stratics.

I'll be thankful for the Mac version as well as I see myself getting a new Mac (Perhaps a G4 cube with that nice studio display...) as soon as OSX is released.

As for Be, well, there's definite potential there, but I'll leave commenting further to someone who knows more about Be than I.

Check out the preview, you'll be drooling in anticipation in no time.

The Linux port of Neverwinter Nights is old news. That announcement has been around since the game was announced. The BeOS port is news to me. Seeems that after the Infinity engine (The engine that powered Baldurs Gate, Planescape, Baldurs Gate II, Icewind Dale) Bioware has learned how to make portable code. (I've heard rumors that the Infinity code is a mess from a portabily standpoint)

There is a good reason to release a Linux version. Without a Linux version there would be a lack of player run servers. Take a look at just about any game that uses player run servers. Most of the servers are UNIX based. I'm sure BioWare is also aware that Linux gamers are hungry for a RPG that isn't nethack.

So far Neverwinter Nights looks great. Just check out this 19 part preview (Got your mpeg player ready?) from Neverwinter Stratics.

I'll be thankful for the Mac version as well as I see myself getting a new Mac (Perhaps a G4 cube with that nice studio display...) as soon as OSX is released.

As for Be, well, there's definite potential there, but I'll leave commenting further to someone who knows more about Be than I.

Check out the preview, you'll be drooling in anticipation in no time.

There have been other Server Emulators in the past, the only one that comes to mind is UOX, an Ultima-Online Emulator. It doesnt seem they've had any legal trouble. In Fact, the Everquest Server Emulator got a mention on their site.

Anarchy Online.

First off, 90% of any post I see related to EQ is always bashing Verant for one reason or another. I think a lot of these posts aren't warrented, and their authors aren't giving Verant a fair chance. But this is the same for any corporation / company... when anything goes wrong, or doesn't go the way they want it to, people scream and yell and say "SEE! *THIS* is capitalism at work!" You're all crazy.
Capitalism at work is keeping your customers happy. If they're happy, they'll keep coming back to buy your product.

When Verant annoucned they were going to scan your tasklist for cheat programs, they also put a poll in at the login screen, stating something to the nature of "Do you have a problem with Verant checking for cheat programs when you run EQ?"

That's right - they *ask* their users for thier opinions.

And *despite* the fact that 83% (out of 15000) responded they were fine with running a check for cheating, *Verant decided not to do it*. Why?

Because enough people had stated they felt it was chipping too much into their privacy.

But the worst part is that people decided to make up ways Verant was checking for these hack/cheating programs... for example, scanning directory trees (false), internet files (false), internet history (false), cookies (false), and email (false).

What was the check suppost to do? "The client simply would examine a small subset of information on your system, none of it containing information personally identifiable to a third party, and only send it to our server in the event that you were "running" an illegal program at the same time you ran EQ." I'm assuming here "illegal program" means a program designed to give a user an advantage over other users in EQ.

I understand some people would say this is an invasion of privacy. Some of those people are honestly worried about the continuous breach in our privacy in general. I'm willing to bet that the majority of people who cried "Foul!" were worried they wouldn't get to use thier cheat programs anymore.
Or, they were the people who find a reason to scream "SEE! Capitalism at work! Invasion of privacy! Invasion of privacy!" when it isn't justified.

This post is way too long already, but I've got more to say on the issue. If you disagree, or agree, post and we'll talk.

The information I used in this post can be found at EQ Stratics or The EQ Vault.

lw

I run a fairly large EverQuest-related humor site, so I've been following this issue since it started (even if only to make fun of it).

What's happening here is a thorny problem where individual "privacy" headbutts with everyone's best interests.

A quick background for those not in the know, Verant Interactive produces and maintains EverQuest, a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game. Thousands of players connect to Verant-administered servers and play alongside other players in a persistent world. It's the second major-market title in the MMORPG genre started by Ultima Online.

The way these games work is centralized servers store all the state information about the virtual world. To be general, nothing is stored client-side. This is required, because unlike games like Quake, the world is persistent. An early incarnation of this type of game was Diablo. The main difference between the newer games (UO and EQ) and Diablo is that with Diablo, all your character information was stored client-side. This became a major problem for the game, as it was only a matter of time before the file formats were reverse-engineered and people started modifying their characters to be super-powered.

By storing the information server-side, this type of cheating is avoided. No matter what you do, there will always be people who want to cheat, and if the information is stored server-side, people will try to exploit the server to cheat, or will "enhance" their client software in order to give them an unfair advantage in the game. Ultima Online has had a long history of dealing with this type of problem. Many security weaknesses in the UO servers were discovered (and fixed), but at the same time, these weaknesses were exploited by people, most often to do devestating things to other players of the game.

Recently, EQ has had the same things happening to it. A program known as "Show-EQ" has been around for quite some time, which simply gives a player an unfair advantage in the game. Verant has dealt with this in a subtle manner, changing their client/server data stream every so often to set back development of the utility.

In the past couple weeks, other programs for EQ have begun to pop up, with more nefarious purposes. The EverQuest servers have been crashed on more than one occasion by these programs. This is what brought Verant to suggesting drive-scanning. It's one thing if someone is just cheating, but it's another thing completely if they're maliciously trying to crash the game.

They took their first countermeasures not too long ago, by adding a feature to the client software that scans your Windows task list and looks for these "external utilities". If it finds one, it flips a "I'm a cheater" flag on your account and you end up with a cancelled EQ account.

They proposed to extend their search to the hard drive, to see if any of these programs even exist on your system... and this is where people started to get upset.

Verant has been very open and forthcoming about the proposed changes, keeping active discussions regarding the issue on the various websites dedicated to EverQuest, offering reasoning and explantions of the scanning process, and they even required all users to answer a poll question regarding the issue on login to the game (which turned up 80%+ in favor of the scanning).

Even with the overwhelming support of the scanning by their playerbase, they responsibly decided to back down on the issue.

Now granted, what they suggested could be a huge tool for abuse and privacy intrusion, but they did not try to "sneak" it past their users in any form. What they were proposing was nothing compared to some of the things that people thought they were planning on doing (there have been some heated arguments about it the past few days).

In short, its not really that they intended to intrude on people's privacy, but that they were seeking to increase the quality of their service and actually have a way to enforce their "no cheating" rules.

Verant should be commended on their responsible handling of this entire incident, not trashed in the court of public opinion based on reports that only tell half the story, like the one posted here on Slashdot.