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Everquest Server Emulator In Beta
Zummi writes: "The people at HackersQuest have released a beta of their Everquest server emulator. " Verant's reaction should be interesting to watch -- EthernalQuest looks cool, and will hopefully look better than the 1992 graphics of Everquest.
When the Ultima Online server emulators came out, Origin threatened to cancel your subscription with the official service. This was explicitly written into the license agreement for the game. If you check the license agreement for EverQuest, I bet it's the same thing.
Origin also released several client-side patches which required additional reverse-engineering on the part of the emulator authors. Officially it was encryption to reduce "cheating". When I left the UO scene, it was bad enough that only certain patch levels of the client worked with the emulators, but were too old to work with the offical servers. Again, I'd bet the EQ folks will do something similar.
There's probably a lot more to be said about this, but I don't think Verant is going to freak out. There's not much they can do, and I don't think it's going to really affect their business anyway.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
As of today, after the latest patch...
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i pay over $100/month for lunch. i would never pay that much for entertainment!
I might be wrong, but it seems that the HackersQuest guys are actually european. If that's the case, good luck suing them ... since you should know that the European Union explicitly allows reverse engineering for interoperability purposes ... which is precisely what this emulator is about. And not only do they allow it, but they also are very likely to sue a company who would try to prevent it for anticompetitive behavior.
It's also interesting to notice that to play Everquest, you have to buy the package AND pay a monthly fee ... this might fall under forced bundling rules if they don't allow people to buy the product without paying the subscription....
Also because people were leveling too fast Verant made a stupid decision to put hell levels in, basically they are levels that take 2x the xp to get to the next level as the game would normally have you do when the better solution would have been to have the experience curve increase over all the levels instead of just 30, 35, 40, 45, etc.
There are problems and other bugs, like enemies attacking you through a stonewall, that Verant doesn't admit is a bug. Maybe if some REAL role-players ran things there would be more fun then sitting and waiting for an enemy to spawn so you can get one step closer to maxing your level which is all there is to do besides chatting with people. Really, chatting and killing the infrequent enemy is all it is. So it might not be the same experiance but I feel it couldn't be too much worse.
Molog
So Linus, what are we doing tonight?
So Linus, what are we going to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night Tux. Try to take over the world!
Besides, they're underhanding Sony and Verant's entire profit system. (Also, note to poster, the graphics in EQ have nothing to do with the server. They're rendered entirely in the client, with only very vague instructions to general placement of things. An emulated server won't improve graphics.)
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
They're trying to emulate Everquest . . . It will look the same
(correct, afaik).
They wrote an eq server, which should have nothing to do with the quality of the graphics. If the servers did, it would clog up the bandwidth. The way this probably works (and all the UO servers did) was read the old files. All it is is a server, not a completely repackaged client as well.
although, fwiw . . . if you want to improve the graphics, crack their format (I don't have eq, but am assuming that it isn't just a straightforward known standard?) and change them. As long as you don't don't change it too dramatically, I'm guessing it would still work . . .
--
--
Whom does Larry Wall quote in
First of all I'd like to qualify these comments with the statement that I'm part of the WorldForge community so my opinions are probably worth what you paid for them...
In concept something like this is a wonderful thing however reading the FAQ fills me with trepidation. Let me elaborate...
In order to run the emulator you have to own the game so the emulator can rip all the artwork and music out of the game. I'm sorry but this is just plain illegal and unethical. The /. crowd runs around foaming at the mouth for any perceived, slight derivation from the GPL but not a whimper about anyone else's property rights. This is just plain ridiculous. You cannot use someone else's artwork, music what have you without the author's consent. The developers claim that the emulator is legal because "it's 100% reverse engineered" is just plain wrong minded and and illegal really. If they used their own music, artwork I would be cheering them on and even looking into cooperation between our two projects but this just is just disturbing..
How do you expect anyone to respect the (rights of the) GPL or the FSF when you trample on everyone else's rights?
-Jason
G. Washington on Government "it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
Yes, Everquest graphics are a bit behind, but this is Massive Multiplayer game, they perhaps don't want to limit themselves to a small group? Kunark uses higher end graphics, guess what, most people still play on the original Island becuase, since it uses older style graphics, it runs much faster on lower end machines.
EverQuest is fun. It isn't the best graphics, but it has a lot of people, it's good graphics, and it runs smooth on a 24000 baud connection. (I have 2 machines running EQ behind 48000 baud connections with no lag). Most people don't realize why certain games takeoff, I think people are angry that EQ is popular even though, in their very tiny minds, it has everything wrong with it. Dated graphics, per month charges, etc.
It's FUN, and Verant constantly adjusts play balance. It's as simple as that. EQ is a graphical LPMud, and to that end, they are still #1, and untouched.
To do a game like EQ, you can't do the best graphics, because you are going to cut out a chunk of society that doesn't have the latest wiz-bang hardware, and for a TRUE massive multiplayer game (not Unreal/Doom style Multiplayer) the more people you get, with a wider range of personalities, the better.
I don't play EQ just for the graphics, I play because there are constantly people from all over the world that I have actually gotten to know over time, just like the original MUD/MUSH/MUCK servers.
When I have a problem with the game, I have a GM assist me, or I can work with them on bugs. I have to pay per-month, but I also haven't purchased another $50 game in the past 15 months. I used to buy a game every two weeks, beat it, buy another. EQ has many levels of fun, and I doubt it's going anywhere soon. To get a server up and running, and keep it running costs money. If you spend 6 months building a character, I would find it a bit annoying to find that Oh, sorry, I didn't feel like supporting this server anymore, so I disconnected it, good luck, which is bound to happen with free servers. This is a persistent world, not a short one. It's not the same as Doom/Unreal, etc. Look at MUD/MUSH/MUCKs, and how many come and go.
-- Keith Moore
This sig is the express property of someone.
All of the previous posts that I have read dealt with moral ramifications, possible action on Sony and Verant's part, and the quality of EQ's graphics.
/.er's usually are by nature, I decided to try out the Hacker's Quest server. Hacker's quest has already gained notoriety for an app that they created called ShowEQ, which sniffs the packets and logs them allowing you to find out specifics of the game that Verant doesn't want you to know. It's pretty nifty, although it does kind of cheapen the experience, IMHO.
I play EQ regularly and can safely say that while I don't enjoy paying around $10 a month, plus $40 for the game alone, It's something that I've come to terms with; they don't call it EverCrack for nothing. It would be nice sometimes, to try something a little different, ie, different NPC's, different item's, and locations.
Curious, as most
Once, I logged on to the Hackersquest server (affectionatly titled) Nine Inch Gnomes ^_^, I made up a new character, as one would expect to do when joining a new server. Once I actually got into the game, I noticed that everyone else started as the same race and level, in the same area.... it's a beta ok... I can cope.
I looked around some more to find that there were no NPC's, enemies, spells, or anything vaguly resembling gameplay.... underwhelming again. What did redeem this server is that they added some extra commands, that allow you to take the form of any NPC in the game; to spawn any item in the game. This was pretty nifty, I could take the form of giant hands or spectres, or try out the most expensive equipment in the game.
Verdict: Hacker's Quest has a long way to go... without any gameplay, well it is boring as Bill Gates' wardrobe color scheme. It does have a little novelty value, but a game without anything to do is not worth noticing.
Sidenote: Sony/Verant will take legal action, it's just their style. ^_^
bitpusher
Wanted: A Bauhaus reformation of society.