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vonguard190 karma

Right now, we judge by risk. Habitat was the first, and therefore the oldest MMO, so it was a big, juicy target in grave danger. Second, we judge by feasibility: for Habitat we had the original authors, the original source code, and an original vintage server. If we had been missing even one of these things, I don't think we could have completed the project.

Right now, our next goal is to preserve Neverwinter Nights (1991 version) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_(1991_video_game). This is not the 3D game from the 2000's, but rather a Gold Box style AD&D game played on AOL. This would be a desirable target because Habitat was hosted on a similar service, and we're expecting to be able to get ahold of the original authors.

After that, we'll go by risk and possibility, again. It's the games people have forgotten which are the most at risk. The big names like WoW, Everquest, and Terra will be just fine on their own for many years to come. You've seen that Blizzard has set a date to release vanilla WoW, so we don't consider there to be a preservation problem there at all. Blizzard is GREAT at preservation. You can still play Diablo 2 online.

What we're after are the games that have no corporate backer. That weren't very popular to begin with. That risk being forgotten completely.

vonguard93 karma

Currently, our greatest opposition comes from the ESA, with the RIAA and MPAA writing letters of support. The ESA feels that we are enabling people to pirate WoW, and sadly seems to have absolutely no concept of the actual technology involved in bringing back a dead MMO.

Our real concern isn't with the companies that still exist today, however. We need this exemption for games that no longer have a corporation behind them: maybe the developer went bankrupt, or the publisher was bought by a company that was bought by a company that was bought by a company, etc.

We don't like the idea of not preserving something simply because the IP rights associated with it are murky and unknown. There will be other comments in here explaining how you can write us a letter of support, so keep your eyes open.

vonguard51 karma

We don't get to choose what the future finds important.

vonguard33 karma

There was a period where comments were open to the public, but that has closed. We don't want people being mean to the ESA, and their whole reason for being is to handle legal issues like this. They're always going to be strictly against copyright loosening, as that's their job. It's like being angry at a snake for being venomous: that's what they do.

A better tactic is contacting game companies to let them know how much you miss their old games. Supporting companies that do the right thing is another good tactic. Microsoft released almost the entire Xbox catalog on Xbox One, complete with online play being brought back. They're the poster child for doing this right.

Blizzard is also spectacular at preservation. They still have Warcraft 3 online, Diablo 2 online, they made Starcraft available for free before they reissued it... they get it. Support them.

Other companies aren't so good about this. Nintendo locks its history in a vault. EA is a bit better than you probably think: its old PC games are all supported online by GameRanger, which is a spectacular free service. If you let companies know they have a game you want to play, but cannot anymore, they may listen. This is why Vanilla WoW is a thing: people made it clear they wanted Vanilla WoW.

vonguard27 karma

Hey, sorry, they're not ignoring the question, just figuring out the best response. You get 3 lawyers together to answer one question, it takes time.