Emulators - Bringing Back the Past or Destroying our Future?

Now I know many of you who are reading this right now are like myself - you grew up with games on the intelivision, atari, 3DO, nintendo, and things of that nature. And much like myself, you would love and relish in the chance to relive some of those childhood memories by playing Tank Defender or Zelda once again. For most of us we cannot, and have to resort to the process of emulation and play them on our PC if we really want to.

But what if one of your all time favorite video games that is currently on the market is on a "private server" and you can play for free and get all of the awesome goodies without any of the "work" involved with getting them? Do you still play it, or do you step aside and play the real deal?

Many people in the MMO world have succumb to the the fact that they would rather play the free version of a game and do ZERO work for many of the items and goodies a game has to offer!

Let's take World of Warcraft for example. This game has had many different types of emulators in the past, and many of them have been shut down. Most of them due to "illegal funds transfers" to the hosting sites in the form of donations for "play to win items". In most cases Blizzard has come up on top in court and (as I stated above) many were forced to shut down and close their doors.

How about another example - The Star Wars Galaxies Emulator (aka SWG Emu). Yes, SWG is and was a fan favorite by many, but does it require an emulator to some very old and for that matter - out dated and dead code files that these tech heads have acquired illegally through the use of packet sniffers and many self made reverse engineering tools? I personally do not believe so. Aside from that the website has avoid prosecution from SOE / LA various times, and to top it of has had much of their donation money taken, stolen, or used by many of the people on board with the project for various "personal expenses".

With the launch date of SW:ToR on the horizon, and other games like Guild Wars 2 - will these games come under fire by the various "pirating" groups out there on the net? I hope not.

For many of us these games are a safe place to play and build friendships and acquire a strong sense of community within our chosen game. What many of these "emu" servers do is take from that community so that they can build their own due to someone else's achievements and glory.

Yes, my stance on the subject matter is somewhat 50/50 - but I do not wish for a game that I pay a set fee for every month to be turned away by thousands if not millions of players just because there is a cheaper (free) alternative on the internet. Most of the time this is how many of the great games of our time often get sour or bad reviews - due to players playing on free servers and not liking what that community has implemented and never actually playing the real game for what it is worth.

I generally see these "servers" (if you can call them that) as a problematic feature that is out there on the internet these days. If you want to "make money" (or donations as you emu people call them) - go and create your own video game, and not steal it from someone else and use the word "donation" to back up the fact that you are STEALING money from innocent people who are too dumb to see through your lies.

I know this is a sour topic on my blog - one of which I really should not be venting over. I just hope in the future that there will be a higher level of security features set in place for many of the great games of our time so many of the "criminals" out there cannot and do not take away from OUR gameplay as well as that of others.

I think I have spoken enough on this topic - so I shall see you all next time!

Cheers :)

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Earthrise (Sci-Fi Sandbox) Goes F2P

Earthrise - one of the next up and coming Sci-Fi Sandbox game that had recently launched this year (I had no idea it had already), has just recently announced that it is about to go to a pure F2P (Free to Play) model and bypass any type of subscription base for its users. The game  resembles that of an "Old School SWG" type game (hell it comes very close to it) - it just has a lot better graphics and such.

As of December 1st of this year - players will be able to experience the game without subscriptions as the game moves into 2012 and into the pure F2P market. The Dev's have stated that there will be no "Pay to Win Items" in the game upon going F2P - and seeing as the game is very "player skill" based, this may help in the long term of the game.

For all of you who like "sandbox" games - it may be something to try out while we wait patiently for SW:ToR's release date to arrive come the 20th. I know many of you may not want to play anything that resembles anything like SWG - but, it could be worth the time to get in touch with some "new old school" and then get into the "new new school" and start fresh!

I honestly do not have much to say about this particular title as I have not played it, hell I didn't even know it had released yet! This to me shows why the company who had made the game needs to go to a free to play model - BAD MARKETING!

If many of the player base who like Sci-Fi games (and for that matter Sandbox Sci-Fi Games) do not know your title has been released yet - you damn well better be ready to lose a tremendous amount of cash that you had already put forth into your project. This here seems to be the case for Earthrise. I know many of the refugees from Star Wars Galaxies probably would have jumped on to this title like flies on... (you get the picture). I mean how can a development company have such blatant disregard for something they have put all that time and effort into to just let it slip away like that?!

It is just careless and a lot of poor planning. I think I have said enough about this at the current time - though I may go and try this out to see how the title play when it does go full F2P in December prior to the launch of ToR. So hopefully by then I shall have another update to post about Earthrise and see what all the fuss is about!

Here is the full article provided by Massively: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/11/15/earthrise-killing-subscriptions-going-free-to-play-in-2012
Cheers All!

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SW:ToR Beta Weekend #3 - Marketing Ploy or Bug Removal?

This week BioWare had announced that beta weekend #3 had come to the surprise of many of its fans. As this weekend is upon us I simply find myself asking one little question - "Why are we still testing a game that is nearly ready for launch?" I do understand the concept behind all the testing and such, but are these weekends being used as a way to "draw" the undecided into either A). Purchasing a Pre-Order, or B). Refining a game that is still incomplete.

In some aspect I believe it is a little of both. The part that frightens me a bit is that if in fact it has a little to do with the second option, what does this mean for launch day? Will the game in fact be complete and rid of the bugs that were found in previous builds that had been tested?

I have been around too many MMO's that have been launched and tested that have come out of the box feeling like they were missing pieces here and there, or just did not have the right pieces where they should be at all. I have no doubts that BioWare will have a completed game come December 20th - but I feel like I should be a little weary with the amount of "testing" this is still happening a month or so before the game arrives at my door step.

I am a very jaded Star War Galaxies player of old, and that game was so incomplete that at times it was totally unplayable. I do not wish the same for ToR or any other Star Wars branded game, as I have a huge undying love for anything in the Star Wars Universe. To think that there COULD be that chance that something will go awry would be devastating to me - and thousands of others who have been wronged by SOE and the SWG model of play.

No I am not saying ToR is anything like SWG (it certainly is not, from what I have seen), nor am I comparing BioWare to SOE's business model (money first - screw your loyal costumer base after). I just feel that there is something that is "unseen" (as with anything in the development process), that many of us wish to see and know.

I know many of the people playing SWG right now will not be satisfied until ToR completely sinks and fails, where as the old schoolers (like myself), are looking forward to this like a kid running downstairs on Christmas morning.

All I wish to convey in this piece is that sense of uncertainty that many of us feel in our gut when we take a log back on the past, and are trying to look ahead to the future of the gaming realm. Sure there have been things like World of Warcraft that have come out - but that slowly went downhill and then turned into an "NGE" of sorts that SWG had done previously!

I hope and pray that BioWare sticks to their guns and keeps the game the way that they have planned from the start and does not falter when the community demands there to be some sort of radical changes that could be utterly detrimental to the game (as development companies usually do). I want this game to be great! My friends want it to be great! For it to be anything else then that - would be heartbreaking.

I am looking forward to December 20th like many of you out there and hope to see you in game. Let us all make this game last and become one of the best out there to date! I know this was a bit off the cuff, but I feel it needed to be said.

Cheers All!