<div dir="ltr">Yeah, I can see how that works. There is always a lack of data - while I have a feeling SOE has a complete list of assets SOMEWHERE for EQ, I know it's not very well organized as we had problems getting the information when I was working on a TCG based on the game. A fan site may then be the best, but still incomplete, archive of all that material (and thankfully all that should be discoverable through the IA).<br>
<br>Regarding getting the server to run, you could probably just set up a fake server and run the whole thing off of there. This would require getting inside the black box of the game, though, and I doubt there would be many companies willing to take that risk, even if the program is good and dead (what's to stop them from worrying about whether or not somebody will steal everything and set up a rogue server?). I know that these things can be faked, considering how Warp Pipe managed to get the Gamecube running over LAN for things like Mario Kart. I should think working with a virtual world would be somewhat more complex, but still analogous.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 4:05 PM, Andrew Armstrong <<a href="mailto:andrew@aarmstrong.org">andrew@aarmstrong.org</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
Yes, the medium of video and audio probably better preserves the <i>state</i>
of MMO's, but there is a lot of information that can be gleaned from
the actual assets. If World of Warcraft were to close tomorrow, I doubt
any wiki or database is 100% complete and accurate, so you could go
into it and get the same feeling or see the same things as a player
would.<br>
<br>
If the games were even just dark archived or whatever, it'd allow
historians at least to see what exactly the game constituted of, even
if it lacks the players. This goes for any multiplayer game - look, we
preserve <i>pong</i> for the same reasons - without a second play it
is nothing but it still matters! :-)<br>
<br>
The problem also is since MMO's are obviously tied to a server model
that does not allow a historian to actually even play the game without
connecting to a server, once these go down, they disappear forever and
are made completely unplayable. While some multiplayer games do this
too (EA Sport ones come to mind, although they might include LAN and IP
variants of multiplayer) most allow LAN or other play which requires no
connection to a "master" server, allowing it to be viewed years further
on.<br>
<br>
In any case, even if there is no one to play it, the model they employ
makes it the worst kind to archive, which is obviously why the virtual
world project is so important of course :-)<br>
<br>
Andrew<br>
<br>
Captain Commando wrote:
<blockquote type="cite"><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">
<div dir="ltr">Technically, an archived online world would only be
what it was like in the last stage of its existence (though you could
technically load an original build if you had the code). You would need
many people to play the game in order for it to be close to what it was
originally. Preserving an online would would then be the equivalent of
preserving 1888 France minus the people.<br>
<br>
I think the most interesting thing about preserving MMO's is preserving
a record of what happened during its life, a record of what the game
was about and how it was played, and the things that were in the game.
If you have the code, that's great, but that's basically just like
saving the last two minutes of an hour-long performance art piece.<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 12:29 PM, Andrew
Armstrong <<a href="mailto:andrew@aarmstrong.org" target="_blank">andrew@aarmstrong.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">Relatively interesting look
at the reasons for and against open
sourcing "dead" MMO games, <a href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/23/165237" target="_blank">via.
slashdot</a>, here:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://stroppsworld.com/2008/07/22/open-sourcing-the-mmo-game/" target="_blank">http://stroppsworld.com/2008/07/22/open-sourcing-the-mmo-game/</a><br>
<br>
Fair points most of us know, and it's a patent fact that most companies
won't even want to dark archive their code or assets when a MMO or any
other game dies, but nice to see a discussion on it.<br>
<br>
Andrew<br>
</div>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
game_preservation mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org" target="_blank">game_preservation@igda.org</a><br>
<a href="http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation" target="_blank">http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation</a><br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.<br>
<br>
"Until next time..."<br>
Captain Commando
</div>
</div></div><pre><hr size="4" width="90%"><div class="Ih2E3d">
_______________________________________________
game_preservation mailing list
<a href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org" target="_blank">game_preservation@igda.org</a>
<a href="http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation" target="_blank">http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation</a>
</div></pre>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>
game_preservation mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org">game_preservation@igda.org</a><br>
<a href="http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation" target="_blank">http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>The sleep of Reason produces monsters.<br><br>"Until next time..."<br>Captain Commando
</div>