Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
There is no magic switch in programs that turn them into something they are not. An MMO would need to be created with your demand in mind for it to be more than a terrible emulator. How do you go about turning an MMO into a single player game? How will you convert your many network services that run across multiple physical and virtual servers into something that will run on somebodies computer?
May I ask why they can't turn it into a F2P game? Is there some reason it has to be single player only? D&D Online and Lord of The Rings Online went F2P and they seem to be pretty on the ball, why can't dying MMOs do that?
If a game dies, the company needs to let people have legal, free servers of their own.
Yes, yes and yes.
why would they do that? they usually heavilly invested into the development of the game, why would they give it away for free? not to mention that it would be giving away know-how and strenghtening the competition.
Because if they game it away with the stipulation of keeping their ads on the game then people could play it, and they could still make money. Just one thought off the top of my head.
I can see a lot of potentially abuse of the system. This isn't talking about going 'open source' so the potential for IPs within the game being copied by other companies/rivals would be a very big concern.
e.g. The netcode for some of the MMOs are actually very very good.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
theres always a fan base when a game reaches its end who will pay for the licence to run their own server (if not ridicules prized) $100 - $150 per licence to run a server of your own whit no suport at all from the developer would bring in a small but nice goodby bonus. is plain silly they dont do it that way.
recoding it into a single payer game wont work, to much cost.
and server software is fairly easy to run on a single home pc, emulators prove how easy it is for a small community to run compex mmo's and they are able to fully chance the games.
UO,WoW,DAOC,SWG,Aion,Linage just to name a few running. the community's will make their own server software when games shutdown (and even before) so in my view a company would be smart to beat it and sell it for their own profit.
The only thing funny here is that you guys seem to think that the word "need" automatically means "needs to because companies have a responsibility to their customers etc." The word need has more than one meaning, and as I've explained, that's not how I used it. You can't pull out 3 words from one of my posts then ignore the rest, especially when the rest explains what I'm talking about.
I always wondered why haven't they thought of this. Why should an mmo go from low population to extinction? Take for example SWG. There are hundreds of players still loving this game. You take it away from them is like you take away a part of their life. Why not give them a small kind of "retribution" at a small cost(which will profit SOE).
I trully believe that most mmos can turn into a single non-online game. Allow freedom in crafting skills, lower the difficulty of bosses etc. Of course the experience won;t be the same and the gameplay value will be nearly diminished for some games. But for those who loved those games this will be comforting and fun.Just to know they can enter the same virtual world, their custom houses etc.
Call me romantic but i know that a lot would love this idea.
Lets hear your opinions
I absolutely agree. Perhaps not as a single player game only, but as it was. Release the source code, the client and the whole works. I know we're not supposed to talk about private servers on here, but Im only speaking of already dead games where the servers have shut down.
Why do those that actually invested in a game no longer get to play it? I bought Fallout 1 years ago. I can install and play that right now. Its sitting on my shelf. So why do players who bought Star Wars Galaxies suddenly not get to experience it anymore? I understand they shut down the servers but those people BOUGHT that. It didnt have a sticker that said " For a Limited Time Only (about 10 years)." .
People should be able to play mmos after they have long shut down. If they paid for it. Because you know......they paid for it. I dont care what form it takes. Whether its single player, allowing people to host their own free servers, or providing free servers themselves.
In the most simple terms, I feel when an mmorpg dies your game stops working. For no reason. It just doenst work. Its not up to you. There is a shut down, thats accepted and thanks for buying and being a loyal player. That doesnt seem right to me. If they are done with it, it might not mean we are.
It really is not ever going to happen and the reasons are quite simple.
1)Cost and feasibility, to turn an mmo spanning maybe 100 server clusters into a single player or 4 player co-op system would mean alot of downsizing of code, a rework of the zone system and lets take for example a mysql based back end, remember your client on your pc that connects to there servers has to do none of the calculations a single player game has too. So coders who write mmo's would not find it easy to do and single player game coders would find it hard to turn an mmo into a single player game.
So you are talking research and development on a game that already people are leaving, a game with 99% content based around a group of players, all would need to be rebalanced, so not only coding challenge but gameplay challenge.
2)Licensing, games like SWG are developed with a huge number of licensed code, pretty much no mmo in existence today uses its own propriety system completely, I would guess a game like SWG is only licensed for a set number of years and only for mmo purposes, lets not even look into the graphics/code/audo codecs etc etc etc that you would need permission of to re-use.
Lovely Idea, would have loved to see this done with auto assault and yes I would love to play swg solo
Companies do not sadly have license most of the time to do what we like.
It really is not ever going to happen and the reasons are quite simple.
1)Cost and feasibility, to turn an mmo spanning maybe 100 server clusters into a single player or 4 player co-op system would mean alot of downsizing of code, a rework of the zone system and lets take for example a mysql based back end, remember your client on your pc that connects to there servers has to do none of the calculations a single player game has too. So coders who write mmo's would not find it easy to do and single player game coders would find it hard to turn an mmo into a single player game.
So you are talking research and development on a game that already people are leaving, a game with 99% content based around a group of players, all would need to be rebalanced, so not only coding challenge but gameplay challenge.
2)Licensing, games like SWG are developed with a huge number of licensed code, pretty much no mmo in existence today uses its own propriety system completely, I would guess a game like SWG is only licensed for a set number of years and only for mmo purposes, lets not even look into the graphics/code/audo codecs etc etc etc that you would need permission of to re-use.
Lovely Idea, would have loved to see this done with auto assault and yes I would love to play swg solo
Companies do not sadly have license most of the time to do what we like.
The green part is a myth, any home pc can run a server on its own,. people seem to think that game server are dozens of diferent systems that all are complex macnines whit complex comunication between them..they are not..
it depents purely on the amount of players connecting how muchs cpu /mem and dedicated wire you need. any mmo ever made can run on a basic home pc whit all instances of the game running next to each other. there is no complex coding going on here, jsut a simple config file that says the datebase runs on this conenction and the world server on the other connection.
the biggest cost is the client, the item you buy in a store when you want to play a game..thats were 50% of the cost of game making will go to. a other 25% will go to the server coding and the remaning will go to tools to alter the game itself,make patches and programs like that.
once you have a stable server and client there is no cost in development at all anymore. expansions are the same deal, 90% art assets and world design whit 10% going to the server code to suport new mechanics, altering databases and scrips.
for games like swg there is the IP problem, soe does not own the ip and thus can not give it way BUT you own the client, and every art asset in the client can be used forever. a server does not hold any IP information besites some quest data at most.
this is why those things we may not talk about are still succesfully being made, coz they use their own server code, and atleast officaly you must own the disk of the original game to play on those things we may not talk about.
Games like SWG and WoW are in those cases far easyer to "give away" then a game that as exsample uses the hero engine, the hero engine is a third party program and yes no game company can give that way since the developers of that engine own the code. but any game that does not use third party engines can give it away..if they wanted, Ryzom is a game build on a open scource engine, the company maintains its own sub based game but anyone whit the knowhow could make their own game from it and run it on their home pc if they wanted.
but eh, its why we have those things we may not talk about, as whit everyting that is digital, if the company's do not suply the means the comunity will find a way of its own.
tons of people dont understand what "propietary code" "licensing rights" and "server software" mean or involve, but their insane self entitlement doesnt stop them from asking for the moon like the 10 year old brats they are....
I suppose when a car company discontinues a model I bought, I should ask them for the assembly machines, engineering drafts and licensed R&D involved to make it...and for free of course...just in case I might wanna continue my car on my own
because obviously, if I have bought 1 car out of the millions they made, Im totally entitled to have all that for free
Well, you know they _could_ run a abandonware policy, like those countless games from the 90s you can play and host servers for for "free"?
Taken strictly it's illegal, but the owners just look the other way.
Maxxis made this smart move early 2000s with Sim City 2000. Why was it smart? - Because the revenue from the game was effectively 0, engine and code could not be reused and spreading the game was merely a marketing move.
Now I know SWG is anothe league, you got server code, client code and probably somet of this stuff can still be salvaged and used in other games (I have no clue, I'm a doctor not an IT-nerd); But still, marketing the game as "freeware" would have a positive impact on the general player base. It sure did this for maxis and also for Westwood back in 2000 when they abandonwared Dune and Dune 2...
I think it's a smart move and will eventually drip through to MMORPG-companies. Reusing failed games and engine has just spawned "Wrath of Heroes" --> 3D arena based warhammer T1 scenarios... It's just something a moloch like SOE probably doesn't _have_ to care about...
Don't know about turning it into a SP game as that would require resources... if a game is dead they will not want to invest money into such a modification.
I would however love if they were legaly obligated to release the server tools/software. Not necessarily the source code. When I buy a game I might not own it but I have the right to install and play it and when servers are shut down they take that right away.
I know you guys are going to ramble on about those f*cking meaningless eulas (not legally bounding in my country) but from a "moral" point of view I should have the possiblity of playing the game one way or another after server shutdown as I paid for it.
I don't know why a development company would release an MMORPG as a stand-alone, single-player game anyway. A lot of the code in an MMORPG is network focused, and removing that could take countless development hours. ($$$) If they didn't remove the networking code, they immediately give any yaboo that wants to run a copy of their game the ability to do so. It creates immediate competition if the original game is still operational.
Finally, and probaly most importantly, making the server software available for anyone to run as a single player game immediately gives their competition the ability to examine in close detail, mechanisms and implementations that the company might feel are 'proprietary'. This includes mechanisms of how the engine works, and the proprietary Intellectual Property of the game's content. Companies are very protective of IP rights. Just try to write a story based on EQ / UO / WoW / LotR lore and see how many publishers will simply not be willing to publish it. And even if you take a self-publication route, be prepared to field numerous lawsuits against you. Theft of Intellectual Property Rights is a very serious business, and companies protect their IP rights fiercely.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
The general idea by itself isnt bad, but in order to change a (dieing) mmo into an offline single player version would require alot of money. The lack of it (in the form of income) is one of the biggest reasons for it to get closed down.
So effectively it would require a significant investment without much coming back from it.
Aren't most of those old games played that way already anyway? Most of them have adopted solo-friendly mechanics, and during my brief stints revisting some of them, almost everyone I encountered was soloing anyway. The only difference being that some still require a subscription.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
... any home pc can run a server on its own, people seem to think that game server are dozens of diferent systems that all are complex macnines whit complex comunication between them..they are not..
it depents purely on the amount of players connecting how muchs cpu /mem and dedicated wire you need. any mmo ever made can run on a basic home pc whit all instances of the game running next to each other. there is no complex coding going on here, jsut a simple config file that says the datebase runs on this conenction and the world server on the other connection.
That is assuming, of course, that the server is a PC-based machine. It might be a generic Unix box, or something exotic, like a Cray. (When I considered getting into the MMO development game, I went as far as identifying several used Cray supercomputers for the central processing hub. Even saw several for under $15,000, which would have been considerably cheaper to purchase than a large server farm. We won't discuss operating costs, though). I don't know exactly how every MMO company operates, but I feel pretty certain that a game server design across all MMORPG development companies isn't the same.
So, yes, if the server happens to run in the same environment (O/S, memory, number of processors, etc.) that you could recreate at home, then you could run a server on your desktop PC. I wouldn't bet on it, though.
And the less I comment on your ideas about cost of development, the happier we'll both be.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
I would love to have the rights to host my own dyeing any mmo game, would be nice but that isnt what were talking about? A dyeing mmo would have to be re-written to make it into single player( i only read first page?).
It really is not ever going to happen and the reasons are quite simple.
1)Cost and feasibility, to turn an mmo spanning maybe 100 server clusters into a single player or 4 player co-op system would mean alot of downsizing of code, a rework of the zone system and lets take for example a mysql based back end, remember your client on your pc that connects to there servers has to do none of the calculations a single player game has too. So coders who write mmo's would not find it easy to do and single player game coders would find it hard to turn an mmo into a single player game.
So you are talking research and development on a game that already people are leaving, a game with 99% content based around a group of players, all would need to be rebalanced, so not only coding challenge but gameplay challenge.
2)Licensing, games like SWG are developed with a huge number of licensed code, pretty much no mmo in existence today uses its own propriety system completely, I would guess a game like SWG is only licensed for a set number of years and only for mmo purposes, lets not even look into the graphics/code/audo codecs etc etc etc that you would need permission of to re-use.
Lovely Idea, would have loved to see this done with auto assault and yes I would love to play swg solo
Companies do not sadly have license most of the time to do what we like.
The green part is a myth, any home pc can run a server on its own,. people seem to think that game server are dozens of diferent systems that all are complex macnines whit complex comunication between them..they are not..
it depents purely on the amount of players connecting how muchs cpu /mem and dedicated wire you need. any mmo ever made can run on a basic home pc whit all instances of the game running next to each other. there is no complex coding going on here, jsut a simple config file that says the datebase runs on this conenction and the world server on the other connection.
the biggest cost is the client, the item you buy in a store when you want to play a game..thats were 50% of the cost of game making will go to. a other 25% will go to the server coding and the remaning will go to tools to alter the game itself,make patches and programs like that.
once you have a stable server and client there is no cost in development at all anymore. expansions are the same deal, 90% art assets and world design whit 10% going to the server code to suport new mechanics, altering databases and scrips.
for games like swg there is the IP problem, soe does not own the ip and thus can not give it way BUT you own the client, and every art asset in the client can be used forever. a server does not hold any IP information besites some quest data at most.
this is why those things we may not talk about are still succesfully being made, coz they use their own server code, and atleast officaly you must own the disk of the original game to play on those things we may not talk about.
Games like SWG and WoW are in those cases far easyer to "give away" then a game that as exsample uses the hero engine, the hero engine is a third party program and yes no game company can give that way since the developers of that engine own the code. but any game that does not use third party engines can give it away..if they wanted, Ryzom is a game build on a open scource engine, the company maintains its own sub based game but anyone whit the knowhow could make their own game from it and run it on their home pc if they wanted.
but eh, its why we have those things we may not talk about, as whit everyting that is digital, if the company's do not suply the means the comunity will find a way of its own.
Actually it depends on the server, see a mud using mysql and java back end will work happily on a Q6600 + 8gb that is a real time Dbase for 30 people, EQ Emu used to run upto 3 zones on one pc (back in the day) server software for these games can work on a single pc BUT to turn that kind of system into a single player enviroment means adding alot of stuff.
Most EMU software you see for mmo's are completely different than the original so my point of multi server software is valid.
it is a bit naff when there are games like Asheron's Call 2, SWG, Earth and Beyond and soforth that have had so many development hours, and so many people that has paid for them in terms of buying the product and the subscription fee that it is a complete waste for them to simply go defunct. Maybe this is why non-mmos > mmos- you can play them anytime, don't have to pay a subscription fee, don't have to play a game run by lousy companies,..not to mention probably getting a far better game experience.
Comments
So why would I pay for any mmo if all I have to do is wait until they give it away to play it?
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
There is no magic switch in programs that turn them into something they are not. An MMO would need to be created with your demand in mind for it to be more than a terrible emulator. How do you go about turning an MMO into a single player game? How will you convert your many network services that run across multiple physical and virtual servers into something that will run on somebodies computer?
May I ask why they can't turn it into a F2P game? Is there some reason it has to be single player only? D&D Online and Lord of The Rings Online went F2P and they seem to be pretty on the ball, why can't dying MMOs do that?
Because if they game it away with the stipulation of keeping their ads on the game then people could play it, and they could still make money. Just one thought off the top of my head.
Acidhedz - Music For Maniacs and Weirdos.
I can see a lot of potentially abuse of the system. This isn't talking about going 'open source' so the potential for IPs within the game being copied by other companies/rivals would be a very big concern.
e.g. The netcode for some of the MMOs are actually very very good.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
theres always a fan base when a game reaches its end who will pay for the licence to run their own server (if not ridicules prized) $100 - $150 per licence to run a server of your own whit no suport at all from the developer would bring in a small but nice goodby bonus. is plain silly they dont do it that way.
recoding it into a single payer game wont work, to much cost.
and server software is fairly easy to run on a single home pc, emulators prove how easy it is for a small community to run compex mmo's and they are able to fully chance the games.
UO,WoW,DAOC,SWG,Aion,Linage just to name a few running. the community's will make their own server software when games shutdown (and even before) so in my view a company would be smart to beat it and sell it for their own profit.
The only thing funny here is that you guys seem to think that the word "need" automatically means "needs to because companies have a responsibility to their customers etc." The word need has more than one meaning, and as I've explained, that's not how I used it. You can't pull out 3 words from one of my posts then ignore the rest, especially when the rest explains what I'm talking about.
Op give me some of the stuff you've been trying, it seems great.
I absolutely agree. Perhaps not as a single player game only, but as it was. Release the source code, the client and the whole works. I know we're not supposed to talk about private servers on here, but Im only speaking of already dead games where the servers have shut down.
Why do those that actually invested in a game no longer get to play it? I bought Fallout 1 years ago. I can install and play that right now. Its sitting on my shelf. So why do players who bought Star Wars Galaxies suddenly not get to experience it anymore? I understand they shut down the servers but those people BOUGHT that. It didnt have a sticker that said " For a Limited Time Only (about 10 years)." .
People should be able to play mmos after they have long shut down. If they paid for it. Because you know......they paid for it. I dont care what form it takes. Whether its single player, allowing people to host their own free servers, or providing free servers themselves.
In the most simple terms, I feel when an mmorpg dies your game stops working. For no reason. It just doenst work. Its not up to you. There is a shut down, thats accepted and thanks for buying and being a loyal player. That doesnt seem right to me. If they are done with it, it might not mean we are.
It really is not ever going to happen and the reasons are quite simple.
1)Cost and feasibility, to turn an mmo spanning maybe 100 server clusters into a single player or 4 player co-op system would mean alot of downsizing of code, a rework of the zone system and lets take for example a mysql based back end, remember your client on your pc that connects to there servers has to do none of the calculations a single player game has too. So coders who write mmo's would not find it easy to do and single player game coders would find it hard to turn an mmo into a single player game.
So you are talking research and development on a game that already people are leaving, a game with 99% content based around a group of players, all would need to be rebalanced, so not only coding challenge but gameplay challenge.
2)Licensing, games like SWG are developed with a huge number of licensed code, pretty much no mmo in existence today uses its own propriety system completely, I would guess a game like SWG is only licensed for a set number of years and only for mmo purposes, lets not even look into the graphics/code/audo codecs etc etc etc that you would need permission of to re-use.
Lovely Idea, would have loved to see this done with auto assault and yes I would love to play swg solo
Companies do not sadly have license most of the time to do what we like.
The green part is a myth, any home pc can run a server on its own,. people seem to think that game server are dozens of diferent systems that all are complex macnines whit complex comunication between them..they are not..
it depents purely on the amount of players connecting how muchs cpu /mem and dedicated wire you need. any mmo ever made can run on a basic home pc whit all instances of the game running next to each other. there is no complex coding going on here, jsut a simple config file that says the datebase runs on this conenction and the world server on the other connection.
the biggest cost is the client, the item you buy in a store when you want to play a game..thats were 50% of the cost of game making will go to. a other 25% will go to the server coding and the remaning will go to tools to alter the game itself,make patches and programs like that.
once you have a stable server and client there is no cost in development at all anymore. expansions are the same deal, 90% art assets and world design whit 10% going to the server code to suport new mechanics, altering databases and scrips.
for games like swg there is the IP problem, soe does not own the ip and thus can not give it way BUT you own the client, and every art asset in the client can be used forever. a server does not hold any IP information besites some quest data at most.
this is why those things we may not talk about are still succesfully being made, coz they use their own server code, and atleast officaly you must own the disk of the original game to play on those things we may not talk about.
Games like SWG and WoW are in those cases far easyer to "give away" then a game that as exsample uses the hero engine, the hero engine is a third party program and yes no game company can give that way since the developers of that engine own the code. but any game that does not use third party engines can give it away..if they wanted, Ryzom is a game build on a open scource engine, the company maintains its own sub based game but anyone whit the knowhow could make their own game from it and run it on their home pc if they wanted.
but eh, its why we have those things we may not talk about, as whit everyting that is digital, if the company's do not suply the means the comunity will find a way of its own.
in this thread:
tons of people dont understand what "propietary code" "licensing rights" and "server software" mean or involve, but their insane self entitlement doesnt stop them from asking for the moon like the 10 year old brats they are....
I suppose when a car company discontinues a model I bought, I should ask them for the assembly machines, engineering drafts and licensed R&D involved to make it...and for free of course...just in case I might wanna continue my car on my own
because obviously, if I have bought 1 car out of the millions they made, Im totally entitled to have all that for free
the real world, kids....
its gonna eat you alive....
Well, you know they _could_ run a abandonware policy, like those countless games from the 90s you can play and host servers for for "free"?
Taken strictly it's illegal, but the owners just look the other way.
Maxxis made this smart move early 2000s with Sim City 2000. Why was it smart? - Because the revenue from the game was effectively 0, engine and code could not be reused and spreading the game was merely a marketing move.
Now I know SWG is anothe league, you got server code, client code and probably somet of this stuff can still be salvaged and used in other games (I have no clue, I'm a doctor not an IT-nerd); But still, marketing the game as "freeware" would have a positive impact on the general player base. It sure did this for maxis and also for Westwood back in 2000 when they abandonwared Dune and Dune 2...
I think it's a smart move and will eventually drip through to MMORPG-companies. Reusing failed games and engine has just spawned "Wrath of Heroes" --> 3D arena based warhammer T1 scenarios... It's just something a moloch like SOE probably doesn't _have_ to care about...
M
Don't know about turning it into a SP game as that would require resources... if a game is dead they will not want to invest money into such a modification.
I would however love if they were legaly obligated to release the server tools/software. Not necessarily the source code. When I buy a game I might not own it but I have the right to install and play it and when servers are shut down they take that right away.
I know you guys are going to ramble on about those f*cking meaningless eulas (not legally bounding in my country) but from a "moral" point of view I should have the possiblity of playing the game one way or another after server shutdown as I paid for it.
I don't know why a development company would release an MMORPG as a stand-alone, single-player game anyway. A lot of the code in an MMORPG is network focused, and removing that could take countless development hours. ($$$) If they didn't remove the networking code, they immediately give any yaboo that wants to run a copy of their game the ability to do so. It creates immediate competition if the original game is still operational.
Finally, and probaly most importantly, making the server software available for anyone to run as a single player game immediately gives their competition the ability to examine in close detail, mechanisms and implementations that the company might feel are 'proprietary'. This includes mechanisms of how the engine works, and the proprietary Intellectual Property of the game's content. Companies are very protective of IP rights. Just try to write a story based on EQ / UO / WoW / LotR lore and see how many publishers will simply not be willing to publish it. And even if you take a self-publication route, be prepared to field numerous lawsuits against you. Theft of Intellectual Property Rights is a very serious business, and companies protect their IP rights fiercely.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
All the code and resources should be made open source from any game thats dead. People could do a lot of good stuff with it.
you are still alive, Vladimir Ilyich?
The general idea by itself isnt bad, but in order to change a (dieing) mmo into an offline single player version would require alot of money. The lack of it (in the form of income) is one of the biggest reasons for it to get closed down.
So effectively it would require a significant investment without much coming back from it.
Aren't most of those old games played that way already anyway? Most of them have adopted solo-friendly mechanics, and during my brief stints revisting some of them, almost everyone I encountered was soloing anyway. The only difference being that some still require a subscription.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
That is assuming, of course, that the server is a PC-based machine. It might be a generic Unix box, or something exotic, like a Cray. (When I considered getting into the MMO development game, I went as far as identifying several used Cray supercomputers for the central processing hub. Even saw several for under $15,000, which would have been considerably cheaper to purchase than a large server farm. We won't discuss operating costs, though). I don't know exactly how every MMO company operates, but I feel pretty certain that a game server design across all MMORPG development companies isn't the same.
So, yes, if the server happens to run in the same environment (O/S, memory, number of processors, etc.) that you could recreate at home, then you could run a server on your desktop PC. I wouldn't bet on it, though.
And the less I comment on your ideas about cost of development, the happier we'll both be.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
I would love to have the rights to host my own dyeing any mmo game, would be nice but that isnt what were talking about? A dyeing mmo would have to be re-written to make it into single player( i only read first page?).
Actually it depends on the server, see a mud using mysql and java back end will work happily on a Q6600 + 8gb that is a real time Dbase for 30 people, EQ Emu used to run upto 3 zones on one pc (back in the day) server software for these games can work on a single pc BUT to turn that kind of system into a single player enviroment means adding alot of stuff.
Most EMU software you see for mmo's are completely different than the original so my point of multi server software is valid.
it is a bit naff when there are games like Asheron's Call 2, SWG, Earth and Beyond and soforth that have had so many development hours, and so many people that has paid for them in terms of buying the product and the subscription fee that it is a complete waste for them to simply go defunct. Maybe this is why non-mmos > mmos- you can play them anytime, don't have to pay a subscription fee, don't have to play a game run by lousy companies,..not to mention probably getting a far better game experience.
While you debate and discuss digital rights past and future some guy somewhere is playing pre NGE.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cloudsol/