Welcome back. I guess from your time MMO Deving was a pioneer innovation. At the moment it's pretty much a shell of itself now a days. Nobody actually wants to dev anymore and those that do are either pretending to become devs/admins when they can't even operate a basic commandline themselves, or those who are truly developers prefers not to waste their time on MMO games at all.
I honestly don't have many questions regarding the state of this board to be honest, since I kinda already got most of the answers I need. It's still quite
a mystery for me to see where did all the actual devs who are still into hosting MMO private servers for unique games go. But I've pretty much build enough connections to reach there and get some answers at least. One of these days I like to actually become a dev and reach end-game status.
I sometimes ask myself, why is no one interested in private servers anymore, Takedowns are almost non existence now a days since these MMO companies perfers to dev all their games in mobile now, there's no point to sue for these PC games when in the next few years or so they'll be no longer in service. It should be the best timeline, but nobody really cares about hosting anymore. All we get now is people who can't code for shit and a lot of foreigners in the scene. I don't like to be negative but that's how it feels around here now
I don't know, maybe I am wrong.
Actually when RZ started, there was almost no deving either. The server files for Legend of Mir 2 leaked and MentaL got his hands on them. Running a server was easy, adding items was also extremely easy. It wasn't until much later that we had some new developed content outside of the official stuff.
I have no clue where all the devs went. This forum had different phases. It originally started as a wrestling forum with MentaL being a fan, I don't think I knew anyone besides him who was on it. When he got the server files he started his own server and that's when the community started.
Years later more server files became available and he started sections for them, and from there it just kept grewing. Early on I don't think there were any real devs, but it grew, I know some people who decided to create their own game, or further developed abandoned games etc.
I think private servers are no longer a real thing, due to things changing so much. I mean back then there was no p2w model, no cosmetics or whatever. It was just the monthly fee.
Back then we also looked very differently at prices. Spending money on a game outside of it's original purchase was just crazy, that didn't happen. But these days it's normal. I work with teens and they find it completely normal to spend 50 on a game and 50 on premium currency.
I think there is also something missing to really excite people for a specific game. I mean WoW was pretty much the biggest MMO release, and still does fairly well today, but the engine is super old, I honestly wonder how many brand new players get in it?
And lastly there is how consume content. Everything needs to be quick, little effort and in doubt, throw money at it. Old school MMO's are nothing like that. The teens I work with can't even pay attention to the TV for more then 2 minutes without looking at their phone. How are they gonna deal with a 3 hour raid?
