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.
emulator
John Smedley on player emulator projects: ‘Good for them’
Ex-Daybreak President John Smedley took to Twitter last night to throw his support behind MMO emulator projects. While most studios publicly ignore or condemn these...
EverQuesting: EverQuest, EverQuest II, Landmark, and EverQuest Next in 2015
When it comes to the EverQuest franchise, looking back at 2015 is a much different experience than looking back at 2014 was. That previous...
There are eight live SWGemu projects right now
The Daily Dot has a long piece out this week on its Kernel subsection all about Star Wars Galaxies and its emulator underground.
Author Dennis Scimeca...
The MOP Up: A rebirth for Star Wars Galaxies
The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some...
EverQuest emulator Project 1999 drops new patch, prepares for 6th anniversary with permadeath
EverQuest has evolved quite a bit over the years, but some folks prefer reliving the classic experience. Project 1999 -- recently given a written...
Divergence Online’s Ethan Casner on SWG 2.0, open PvP, and edgelords
Star Wars Galaxies-inspired indie sandbox Divergence Online busted out its third alpha and third crowdfunding campaign last week, prompting many of Massively OP's readers...
The MOP Up: Ultima Online’s new home
The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we're deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some...
The Game Archaeologist: Star Wars Galaxies’ NGE
It became one of the most infamous moments in MMO history -- and perhaps one of the most misunderstood.
For all that the MMO community...
The Soapbox: These three MMOs deserve a do-over
Wouldn't it be cool if every MMORPG that failed to reach its potential were granted some sort of do-over? We've seen it happen once, with...
The Daily Grind: Do you play on private servers for dead MMOs?
Massively OP Kickstarter donor Igor aka Slaith proposes we debate private servers for dead MMOs for today's Daily Grind -- specifically, he mentions Warhammer Online.
This is...
Global Chat: What happens to original MMOs when they get sequels?
Telwyn at GamingSF asks a question that I've contemplated from time to time: When an MMO gets a sequel, what happens to the original...
Massively OP Podcast: Episode 12
Justin, Bree, and Eliot from Cards Against Humanity discuss SWTOR's Ziost update, Daybreak's emu deal, the Guild Wars saga, ArcheAge's patch, and Darkfall's retcon, plus mail on MMO mistakes and replacing CoH. Bonus: Justin's Kickstarter tribute song!
EverQuest’s newest progression server gets a name
The voters have spoken, and EverQuest's newest progression server will be named Ragefire.
"While the vote is still live in-game, Ragefire is ahead by a...
The Daily Grind: How many MMOs are on your hard drive?
I got a new gaming computer last week, and I'm in the process of downloading a few MMOs. I've only got 300 GB to work with,...
EverQuest emulator group gets a ‘written agreement’ with Daybreak
Who says MMO emulators are illegal? Not Daybreak, apparently, as the firm has entered into a "written agreement" with the creators of an EverQuest emu known...
The Daily Grind: Where do you stand on MMO emulators?
Emulators. They're a touchy, murky, grey-area subject for many people and one that we don't touch on a lot here on the site due...