Nonameplease recently sent us a concerned email about the future of MMOs, specifically Star Trek Online. “I have spent a ton of money on rare ships,” he told us. “When this game finally shuts down, I’ll be SOL…. unless there is an emulator. Even though my previous purchases won’t be carried over, I’m guessing the emu folks know they can’t sell ships and will make all ships freely available to everyone, meaning I will still get to play the ships I spent money on at one point. Getting to the point: Should people plan ahead for emulators of existing live games? And by people I mean people who know how to run emus and get their hands on the code and files and stuff needed.”
The rise of rogue servers – specifically their growing legitimization in the MMO community – has been such a big topic lately that we even noted it prominently among our awards last year. I assume that with every beloved MMO, players planning ahead for the death of MMOs to the point of grabbing what they can before a sunset is even announced with intent to build a player-run rogue server later. With other MMOs, developers themselves have helped out, either with the blessing of the company – or more often, without. What would be a better way to handle all this – how do you think MMO end-of-life care should play out?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
