emulator

In the MMO genre, an emulator is a playable, private version of an MMO run by players independent of a game studio. Both sunsetted and extant games are emulated with varying degrees of moral and technical support from the community and the studios; some develop their games better than the original and even attempt to charge fees or take donations. Despite the claims of emulator runners, private emulators are generally illegal under DMCA laws and violate the terms of service of most online games, but some studios and many players choose to look the other way.

The Daily Grind: Do you still have ‘passion’ for MMORPGs?

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Over the weekend I saw an interesting Twitter discussion about how much game-playing game-designers actually need to do, and whether those passions are even...

The Daily Grind: What’s the best MMORPG skill system that avoids the ‘illusion of choice’?

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Over the weekend, my husband and I were chatting about playing on a Star Wars Galaxies emulator again, probably the Legends one that people...

MMO business roundup: Virtual reality, Niantic, WoW emu hacking, and what Google’s up to

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We've got some MMO industry topics you shouldn't miss, so welcome back to our MMO business roundup! • Last week, Pokemon Go company Niantic previewed...

The Daily Grind: Would you play Star Wars Galaxies if it relaunched today?

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Star Wars Galaxies is 15 years old now, and it was just about seven years ago that SOE announced it was slated for execution....

The Stream Team: Re-living Star Wars Galaxies memories in the Emu on the game’s 15th birthday

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You hear Massively OP's staff talk about Star Wars Galaxies all the time. But have you seen it? Now you can. The game may...

Whatever happened to Tibia, The Realm Online, and Meridian 59?

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Ever pause during your day and find yourself wondering, “Whatever happened to that game?” With hundreds upon hundreds of online titles these days, it’s surprisingly easy...

City of Heroes emulator SEGS announces new update with NPCs, database support, and a GUI

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If you've been following SEGS' twitter over the last week, you know the team there has been teasing something big. And now we know...

The Game Archaeologist: The rebirth of The Realm Online

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Debuting in 1996, The Realm Online (or, as it is sometimes shortened, The Realm) became one of the first online RPGs to overlay graphics...

The Realm Online’s reboot by a former emulator team is still set for June

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Back in March, we were all surprised to learn that The Realm Online was getting a reboot. Owners Norseman Games transferred its "exclusive license...

Missing 14-year-old City of Heroes? The SEGS emulator is looking for coders

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Are you missing City of Heroes this week, what with the 14th anniversary of its launch and all? We are too. Earlier this month,...
No long

City of Heroes emulator pumps out its first public release

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Former City of Heroes players have plenty of options to try to fill the void of their favorite MMO. There's a chat shell that...

Classic MMO The Realm gets an official reboot

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One of the very oldest graphical MMORPGs in the world has been on life support for a long time now. The Realm (also known...
bang

Massively Overthinking: Paying for MMORPG emulators, legal or otherwise

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MassivelyOp reader Bryan recently wrote to us with a fun question about emulators, a topic that will simply never die as long as MMORPGs...

The Daily Grind: Are fan emulators of dead MMOs worth developing?

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As an amateur historian and an MMORPG enthusiast, I generally applaud efforts by the community to resurrect, preserve, and even reboot sunsetted games. While...

Toontown Rewritten sponsors convention for emulator fans

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Perhaps one of the most amazing MMORPG emulator projects is one that has flown under the radar of the larger community. Following the shutdown...

Massively Overthinking: MMOs belong in a museum!

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Let's talk game preservation. We've been covering MADE's attempt to convince the government to tweak its interpretation of the DMCA to basically allow museums,...

World of Warcraft emulators forge forward in a post-Classic announcement era

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Curious about what's going to happen to all of those World of Warcraft legacy emulators with WoW Classic on the way? It doesn't look...

The Game Archaeologist: EverQuest Mac

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In 2003, Sony Online Entertainment tried an experiment to reach out to the (then) small-but-growing community of Mac users. The company released EverQuest Macintosh...

The ESA is fighting proposed DMCA exemptions that would preserve sunsetted MMORPGs because of course it is

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Over the last couple of years, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has been petitioning for changes to the DMCA to help preserve old video games...

Massively Overthinking: Which MMORPGs should stay away from legacy servers?

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Legacy, vanilla, classic, progression - call them what you like, but alternative server rulesets, particularly of the nostalgia-driven kind, are all the rage in...

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