Legalities, Curiosity, Maybe Just Inquisitive...

[gametec]

I'm not one for the rumor mill and there are a lot of rumors circulating this community about legal issues and how the official/ former, Origin Systems Inc., employees feel about the work we are doing in this community...

Well yesterday I accidentally stumbled on the personal website of Raph Koster and, in doing so I decided to take an initiative that I figured, may or may not piss the man off. I asked him how he, and his colleagues, feel about what we are doing as a community; emulating the software he and the other members of his team worked so hard to get up and running. I also asked him if the rumors surrounding that unspoken symbiotic relationship between free servers and Broadsword/ Electronic Arts were true; do they allow us to run free servers as a way to get ideas and then market the best of those ideas in official expansions...

To my surprise Mr. Koster replied promptly this evening and here is what he had to say:

It makes me happy, overall.

I think that the main reason they are still around is that we tolerated them early, and now EA can only look bad if they shut them down. Plus they got box sale revenue all along. I don’t think the ideas thing has anything to do with it. Doubt they are even looking that close.

Remember, early on UO allowed third party tools and ebaying, where other companies fought all of it. So we had a liberal policy from the outset.

At peak there were thousands of them, btw. And hundreds of thousands of players in China on gray shards.

This should ease some of you when considering if what we are doing is a bad thing. I know it helped me put all of this in perspective. It's always one thing to hear and listen to the rumors that circulate, but nothing beats going to the source for answers; in this case that answer surprised the heck out of me and really I'm impressed he even responded

 

[Juzzver]

These words will not save you if you deprive the bread EA and Broadsword

 

[gametec]

These words will not save you if you deprive the bread EA and Broadsword

Ofcourse not, but they are kind of reassurance that what we are doing is a relatively safe hobby. I mean even if Electronic Arts Inc. or Broadsword goes after free servers, they'll just pick off uogamers and then maybe move to some of the more successful independent free servers. Everyone else who is doing this for a hobby and not personal gain will remain in the safe zone.

Hey I'm just impressed he responded to my email and answered a few questions that have been lingering in my head for the last eight years. I found it quite impressive that he even acknowledged the email and didn't just toss it.

 

[Dan]

The only problem here is he has been long removed from UO. He is also doing a webcast on UOF.

With Endless Journey coming out Mesanna has stated they will be taking a very hard line on things they didn't enforce in the past.

They even post offending numbers now on UO.com

No idea if they mean free shards but...you never know.

 

[gametec]

Looks to me it is more for in-game incidences than free server issues; perhaps those solicitations have to do with free servers but that is really all I see from the numbers Mesanna has offered up. I am surprised they are beginning to care about multi-boxing again. Mythic Entertainment allowed multi-boxing for the first time and now Broadsword is taking it away; interesting...

https://uo.com/2018/04/19/16426/

4/1-4/8

12 disruptive behavior

18 macroers

14 multiboxers

12 solicitation

4/9 – 4/15

14 macroers

7 solicitation

6 disruptive behavior

 

[ETsCat]

If you charge for members to play, they will sue you and close you down. But if you don't interfere with there sales they won't.