Save EQOA Petition [Archive]

Bumblebeard

06-15-2013, 03:45 PM

Hullo there! For anyone who used to play Everquest Online Adventures on the playstation 2, or would just like to try and bring back this game; there is a petition that only requires 24 more signatures to reach the goal. Thank you to all who make their mark. Peace

http://www.change.org/petitions/save-eqoa

Thulack

06-15-2013, 06:02 PM

Dont think a major company gonna use up serverspace/electric for a game that 500 people cant even sign a petition to play in 3 months.

Nune

06-16-2013, 12:44 AM

they dont even make that game anymore, gave my discs away a loooong time ago and a few years ago went back to try and rebuy them and they were a small fortune, maybe they remarketed the discs but last i checked they were bleeding it dry, and were very open about that despite what the petition seems to be "unfairly" declaring

Auvdar

06-16-2013, 01:04 AM

Dont think a major company gonna use up serverspace/electric for a game that 500 people cant even sign a petition to play in 3 months.

r00t

06-16-2013, 06:14 AM

I don't understand why they would shut it down. A single server is not that expensive to host. I'm sure there was enough people to offset the cost. It did have a subscription fee right?

The link for more info 404's: https://www.soe.com/eqoa/

in b4 EQOAEmu

Khaleesi

06-16-2013, 06:38 AM

Had a conversation with Vedan about this not too long ago.
Yes, the cost of running and maintaining the server was NOT expensive. Additionally of the handful(think it was down to three: one guide, one developer, one community manager) employees involved, they weren't being particularly or directly paid for it. The overhead costs were essentially non existent. Server space was not an issue; it required little and took some of the lowest bandwidth of any game SoE had active.
And they still raked in a subscription fee of $14.99 a month. It may not seem much when the player base is less than three hundred people, but there was a time when P99 was averaging three hundred and making $0.

This had been going on for almost five years; they still managed to look after the product and include content updates. It's a shame that it shut down two years ago - especially after I managed to emulate it on the computer (more on that later).

There's quite a few games, whether semi-modern or entirely retro that have been remastered and made compatible to use on newer consoles. They are essentially selling ROMs and emulation packages for PS3, Xbox and soon to be PS4/Xbox One.

I believe the problem there is that those games are not often online based, and thus someone would have to host it.
We could do this privately, like P99 yet there's the emulation side of it which, to my knowledge is going to be a disaster to figure out.
Assuming the server could be emulated all we need is to setup a quick guide on PS2 emulation.

BTW, the timing on me setting up the emulation came the day of the big Sony hacking incident last year. This was a bit of a stinger because I went onto my original account and of course was not subscribed; I didn't want to fork out the money if I wasn't going to actually play (I just did it to see if I could make it work). Then I remembered I had a spare unused key. Having made a new account, I loaded up the server and was in. I didn't really know what to do after running around for a few hours, so I logged off. Next morning there's the news on Sony and in the wake of that, free forty-five days to all SOE gaming accounts. Major score right? My original account was now active and I logged in. I had a good time but got side tracked in real life. I came back and the servers had officially closed!

First is the packet execution tracker and the game menu after recent update.
Second and third pictures are me standing in Freeport once logged in.

http://i41.tinypic.com/2ughz4h.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/2r44yfs.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/aatybm.jpg

I wonder if Nilbog would be interested in working on something like this rather than ever making another EverQuest server.

And while we're in the signing mood - let's get a signature list going for ENB series to make a DX6 and DX7 converter for their popular ENB series graphics.
See thread here for artist's interpretation of how EverQuest would look with some DoF and SSAO type lighting http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18950
See thread here for discussion of EverQuest ENB series http://enbdev.com/enbseries/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1488&sid=180f31a1d232961052cbdffdc9fb9ea8&start=10

r00t

06-16-2013, 06:45 AM

The problem with creating an EQOAEmulator is that a lot of stuff for EQEmu was done with the help of packet sniffers like ShowEQ and Wireshark. Since Sony does not have the server up anymore, it's going to be considerably more work, nearing impossibility. There's already a ton of guesswork involved when it comes to deciphering the packet stream even when you have most the info on the structs and what opcodes are communicating back and forth.

Perhaps a petition to get them to release the source and database (I highly doubt they would though). Someone ask at a fanfaire open mic!

Bumblebeard

06-16-2013, 01:15 PM

Good idea with the fanfaire open mic. Though I know it's probably unlikely that they would bring back EQOA on ps2, if the information required to create an emulator was available, I think many people would be happy to see it return on PC. With the cost of one server being low, and the higher playerbase than EQmac (which was saved from total destruction by Smedley due to a petition) It sucks to have your favourite game vanish when it could have been salvaged in some form instead. I'm sure anyone else who really enjoyed EQOA shares similar nostalgia, and feeling of mmo homelessness since it's departure.

Khaleesi

06-17-2013, 07:16 AM

Why not amend the petition to get source code access?
Surely Sony don't need this any longer.

Sularus Oth Mithas

06-17-2013, 10:21 AM

EQOA was a great game for it's time. It was the first game I ever got to Beta test and it was first time I ever had a server first 50 shortly after it went live (go bards!). I played up until the first xpac and lost interest shortly thereafter. I was surprised to see they were shutting there servers down a while ago. Looks like most people moved on to EQ2 at that point.

I don't think I would enjoy it on an emulator much but I hope it works out for you.

Khaleesi

06-17-2013, 10:36 AM

SamwiseRed

06-17-2013, 10:54 AM

let it die peacefully.

Sularus Oth Mithas

06-17-2013, 04:57 PM

Why would you not enjoy it? Should help out and sign anyways!

I dunno, I just don't have the desire to go back to that game. I have good memories, I liked it a lot at the time. I would rather play an EQEMU or DaoC - I would in fact die for a DAoC emu that was done well and had a good player base.

As for signing anyway - I did. Just because I am not going to play it doesn't mean others shouldn't have the opportunity.

Khaleesi

06-18-2013, 06:52 AM

I dunno, I just don't have the desire to go back to that game. I have good memories, I liked it a lot at the time. I would rather play an EQEMU or DaoC - I would in fact die for a DAoC emu that was done well and had a good player base.

As for signing anyway - I did. Just because I am not going to play it doesn't mean others shouldn't have the opportunity.

I understand; very generous of you to sign.

mtb tripper

06-18-2013, 06:52 AM

let it die peacefully.

tis true

Khaleesi

06-18-2013, 06:59 AM

let it die peacefully.

I get the sentiment here though feel it's misplaced. The same could have easily been said for EverQuest. All the reasons for both would be equal in this context.

However given the relative ease of client side emulation, our only real roadblock is the source code.

I would be even confident to say that a working emulated copy of EQOA would see more population than P99.org.

Khaleesi

06-19-2013, 07:57 AM

EQOA 300 people before getting shut down?
EQLive still going strong...

What is the relevance of EQ live here? You do realize EQOA was on the PS2 and people whom had invested years of character development on EQ would not drop it to play a different game on a piece of hardware they don't already own.

Rhambuk

06-19-2013, 08:07 AM

Signed it for you, never played it my Ps2 wouldn't work on Dial up WTF!!!

I'm sure its a cool game but theres to many on my list as is. Hope the petition works for you!

Bumblebeard

06-19-2013, 07:08 PM

Thanks for the support guys! Only need 13 more signatures to hit the goal.

Khaleesi

06-20-2013, 07:39 AM

Signed it for you, never played it my Ps2 wouldn't work on Dial up WTF!!!

I'm sure its a cool game but theres to many on my list as is. Hope the petition works for you!

I dare say you may have missed an opportunity, because it did work on dial up!

Bumblebeard

06-20-2013, 05:59 PM

I dare say you may have missed an opportunity, because it did work on dial up!

Yup and flawlessly too, at least for me. It was amazing to have such a huge world with no loading zones still work with dial-up.

Bumblebeard

06-22-2013, 02:30 PM

Only 3 more signatures needed :)

r00t

06-22-2013, 06:16 PM

was gonna sign but looks like ye made it

Bumblebeard

06-22-2013, 09:16 PM

You could still sign it :) the goal has been bumped up to 1000 now for more people to sign

Khaleesi

06-24-2013, 07:53 AM

the fact that EQ Live had and still has a high enough following of players to actually support an emulated version

???????

What defines support? Population total? Population retention? In both cases, EQ on original servers, whether classic or post classic era had significantly more players than P99 ever has and will.

And P99 is not the only emulated server, so the numbers are even further skewed.

Thus how is that relevant?

This is not a business opportunity; we're not attempting to gauge return investment.
EQOA whether at 3000 or 300 accouts, is still something people would like to play.
And if someone out there gets a hand on the source code and wants to make it they will.