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DEV's-I have a question about the free shards?

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Duke SP

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How come EA/Mythic allows free shards, isn't that taking out of their pockets?
 
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Vyal

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

They don't but how can they stop it?

When I worked on EQemu we got sued accounts banned ect ect..
By Sony mind you, Sony got a bit more cash then EA ide say.....

Only option for EA is stop production of the EMU's and since I can think of about 5 that are open source, ones even open source and written in VB so any programmer can just pick up the source and walla instant EMU they can change edit and have the source too.

Just isn't any way to shut these guys down but EA does have the right to sue their asses off. I wish they would take down the UOgamers shards take em down a peg...
 
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Duke SP

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

They don't but how can they stop it?

When I worked on EQemu we got sued accounts banned ect ect..
By Sony mind you, Sony got a bit more cash then EA ide say.....

Only option for EA is stop production of the EMU's and since I can think of about 5 that are open source, ones even open source and written in VB so any programmer can just pick up the source and walla instant EMU they can change edit and have the source too.

Just isn't any way to shut these guys down but EA does have the right to sue their asses off. I wish they would take down the UOgamers shards take em down a peg...
So making a game that is JUST LIKE UO is not copyright infringement or something? Because honestly i think the free shards are killing the real UO IMHO.:thumbdown:
 
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CatLord

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

Countdown to locking this thread starting...

5... 4...
 
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UOKaiser

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

They don't but how can they stop it?

When I worked on EQemu we got sued accounts banned ect ect..
By Sony mind you, Sony got a bit more cash then EA ide say.....

Only option for EA is stop production of the EMU's and since I can think of about 5 that are open source, ones even open source and written in VB so any programmer can just pick up the source and walla instant EMU they can change edit and have the source too.

Just isn't any way to shut these guys down but EA does have the right to sue their asses off. I wish they would take down the UOgamers shards take em down a peg...
Then what? They waste money on it as it will start up more underground.Then the player base on those shards will hate ea more and definetley wont come to play UO and other EA games. Same mistake the RIAA is making trying to shut down bit torrents,p2p programs etc... and then trying to charge multiple times for 1 sale it will just push people away and increase use. Not to mention lower the funds needed to keep UO afloat. Forget about any more expansions. We be back to 1 patch every 6 months again.
 
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Vyal

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

No you can make a game like UO, you just can't use it's name graphics sounds movies or code...

Making a EMU, messing with UO code, client, graphics files ect is against the law.
 
V

Vyal

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

Im not saying sue em but it is a option and EA could legally do it, this isn't p2p though its people hijacking UO code and players. If I was EA I would sue the hell outa of them, well I would have back when they first got created now it's pretty pointless.
 
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Beer_Cayse

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

Ahm wit Catlord .. IBTL.
 
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UOKaiser

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

Im not saying sue em but it is a option and EA could legally do it, this isn't p2p though its people hijacking UO code and players. If I was EA I would sue the hell outa of them, well I would have back when they first got created now it's pretty pointless.
Could be but this game dont have the money of WOW. Every game has a certain budget. The budget is spread to keep the game running expansions,advertising,legal procedures,Staff etc.. UO didn't have enough to keep his own GMs in the budget so basicaly I would assume the srtucture was shrank down to a bit of each game the gm's police is in pot like that money is saved requiring less gms. The legal department also gets a consolidated budget though only so much is allocated per department depending on the earnings.
Because UO earnings and others of it's group are so low it doesn't justify the expense just to use one of there expensive lowers which they have on retainer of course time and expensives of court to get a judgement against people who run these shards who very likely have no assets and will have to file for bankrupcuy anyway if they lose. Add that to the negative publicity and the earnings this game makes and we can just forget such things.

Simply if I was Ea I would close my eyes and rather just close down UO than waste so much money and negative press going after a player base that developed a cult following to a game which they just inherited and already got there moneys worth.


You can pretty much tell what our budget is by looking at the decline of advertising for last expansion. They probably used the advertising budget and added it to the upgrade budget for us to get such a nice expansion.
 

Elaysia

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

So making a game that is JUST LIKE UO is not copyright infringement or something? Because honestly i think the free shards are killing the real UO IMHO.:thumbdown:
I have a solution to this, lol. ;) In my thread. Make UO free up to a point. You can read more under the thread Dev's Please. I seriously think this would also kill those off. I mean of course it would. It's like WoW has alot of those private servers as well, but is it hurting them as much, no not like it is UO. So to counter that, those players could actually come to the real UO. The post is I am referencing is about world chat and mail, but if you scroll down far enough. I made a post about things that would help UO bring players back.

Here is the link, start reading from post #52 down...

http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?p=1438959#post1438959
 
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Tay M'real

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

I have a solution to this, lol. ;) In my thread. Make UO free up to a point. You can read more under the thread Dev's Please. I seriously think this would also kill those off. I mean of course it would. It's like WoW has alot of those private servers as well, but is it hurting them as much, no not like it is UO. So to counter that, those players could actually come to the real UO. The post is I am referencing is about world chat and mail, but if you scroll down far enough. I made a post about things that would help UO bring players back.

Here is the link, start reading from post #52 down...

http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?p=1438959#post1438959
that's actually not a bad idea....the great thing about UO is that you have 24 hour support and real DBAs, technical staff developers etc..

all the resources woudl still be going to the same number of players as far as who gets to benefit from new content etc....give them a limited access, more limited bank, no house ownership...they likely would eventually join...

that's a pretty cool idea
 
O

Old Man of UO

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

So making a game that is JUST LIKE UO is not copyright infringement or something? Because honestly i think the free shards are killing the real UO IMHO.:thumbdown:
If you look at the population of the free shards, it would be a stretch to say that all of those people would pay to play if the free shards were not available, and it's only a small percentage of the overall real UO population.

That aside, tracking down servers in foreign countries where copyright laws differ from US law, and trying to stop the service... near impossible. As soon as one would be crushed, another would pop up. It's like playing Whack-A-Mole.
 

the 4th man

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

If you look at the population of the free shards, it would be a stretch to say that all of those people would pay to play if the free shards were not available, and it's only a small percentage of the overall real UO population.

That aside, tracking down servers in foreign countries where copyright laws differ from US law, and trying to stop the service... near impossible. As soon as one would be crushed, another would pop up. It's like playing Whack-A-Mole.

Anyone playing a free shard lacks alot.....you're trusting your pc to some foreign servers?? Don't these foreign servers have the ability to shut down at will?? At any given time??

I wouldn't play one, and if UO ever went belly up, I still wouldn't.
 

Ender

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

I think that if there was ever a pre-T2A/pre-Ren official server, there would be less players on freeshards.
 
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Coragin

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

Honestly there is nothing they can do to the developers of the emulator. The emulator itself is their own program, they wrote it. It is in no way interfering with the EA servers at all. And they cant exactly ban the people running the freeshard, because well, they arent playing on EA servers.

Most that can be done would be ban all accounts that belong to the people playing there if they have any. But the EULA is pretty specific, it is written to protect EA servers and Ultima Online on their servers.

So, no they cant shut down someone who writes their own program, especially if they dont own a copy of ultima online.
 
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DarkScripture

Guest
Re: DEV's-I have a question about free shards?

Honestly there is nothing they can do to the developers of the emulator. The emulator itself is their own program, they wrote it. It is in no way interfering with the EA servers at all. And they cant exactly ban the people running the freeshard, because well, they arent playing on EA servers.

Most that can be done would be ban all accounts that belong to the people playing there if they have any. But the EULA is pretty specific, it is written to protect EA servers and Ultima Online on their servers.

So, no they cant shut down someone who writes their own program, especially if they dont own a copy of ultima online.
Everything you stated is wrong. Not one fact is true.
 
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Tazar

Guest
Because Stratics is here to support the official Ultima Online community, our rules are set to support the games we play. One of these rules is:

O. Activities that are against any games' Terms of Service or the User Agreement are prohibited from being promoted or advertised on our network. This includes, but is not limited to, third party programs, game item sales for real world goods, power leveling services, and/or links to such items.

As such, conversations regarding freeshards are not appropriate here.
 
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