The Secret City and the Return of Heroes
April 18, 2019 1:01 PM Subscribe
On November 30, 2012, the MMORPG City of Heroes shut down after a three-month sunset period; its owner, NCSoft, refused to sell the IP to someone else to continue the game, or even keep legacy servers up. Rumors of sale of the IP since then haven't come to anything, and there's been some work on reverse-engineering of the servers with various projects. However, all such efforts were rocked recently at the revelation that the game was only mostly dead--a private server running a bootleg copy of the server code has been in operation for six years.
The information was leaked in a video by player Destroyer Stroyer, aka Brian, The latest development is a (claimed) leak of the server code [reddit], which, if true, answers one of the questions that people have for Leandro Pardini, the alleged mastermind behind the private server: why not release the code out into the wild, as it were, and let other people host their own servers? Aside from maybe getting sued by NCSoft, that is. The situation, as they say, continues to develop.
The information was leaked in a video by player Destroyer Stroyer, aka Brian, The latest development is a (claimed) leak of the server code [reddit], which, if true, answers one of the questions that people have for Leandro Pardini, the alleged mastermind behind the private server: why not release the code out into the wild, as it were, and let other people host their own servers? Aside from maybe getting sued by NCSoft, that is. The situation, as they say, continues to develop.
Side note: "lovingly beefing" is either the best or the worst euphemism for online discourse, not sure which
posted by trunk muffins at 1:58 PM on April 18, 2019
posted by trunk muffins at 1:58 PM on April 18, 2019
Metafilter: lovingly beefing
posted by Pastor of Muppets at 2:02 PM on April 18, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by Pastor of Muppets at 2:02 PM on April 18, 2019 [10 favorites]
so cyberpunk so gibson so cool
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 2:06 PM on April 18, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 2:06 PM on April 18, 2019 [4 favorites]
CoH was the only MMORPG I got in to. I really didn't want to talk to folk, so just had fun grinding away with my Ice/Axe Tank, SubXena. (She was an ice sculpture at a fandom convention that came to life, you see. There must have been some magic in that old ice axe the found, for when they put it in her hands, she began to swing it round.)
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:49 PM on April 18, 2019 [23 favorites]
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:49 PM on April 18, 2019 [23 favorites]
How did I not know about this??? I've been salty about the closure of CoH every day since it happened.
posted by trunk muffins
You, me and many others. This really pisses me off.
posted by Splunge at 2:49 PM on April 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by trunk muffins
You, me and many others. This really pisses me off.
posted by Splunge at 2:49 PM on April 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
It was always surprising to me how Sony and then Daybreak seemed to take such a permissive stance on emulated Everquest servers.. or at least couldn't be bothered to shut them down. Then after many years of unlicensed operation, Daybreak Games actually gave their blessing to Project 99 ( a painstaking recreation of the original, undiluted EverQuest) in part because .... they were the only ones running the original Plane of Mischief, which Daybreak wanted for their own progression servers.
posted by Lorin at 2:52 PM on April 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Lorin at 2:52 PM on April 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
Bad News: You're running in a simulation
Worse news: You're running in a pirated copy of a simulation.
posted by nickggully at 2:57 PM on April 18, 2019 [31 favorites]
Worse news: You're running in a pirated copy of a simulation.
posted by nickggully at 2:57 PM on April 18, 2019 [31 favorites]
Worse news: You're running in a pirated copy of a simulation.
That would explain this current timeline.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 3:14 PM on April 18, 2019 [32 favorites]
That would explain this current timeline.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 3:14 PM on April 18, 2019 [32 favorites]
Metafilter: lovingly beefing
That checks out.
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 3:15 PM on April 18, 2019
That checks out.
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 3:15 PM on April 18, 2019
That checks out.
I am not being beefed nor have I beefed within memory. I demand a refund.
posted by maxwelton at 3:27 PM on April 18, 2019
I am not being beefed nor have I beefed within memory. I demand a refund.
posted by maxwelton at 3:27 PM on April 18, 2019
Developing and running this service places the developers in legal and civil jeopardy. It seems completely understandable they would be sub rosa about it.
I don't have a lot of sympathy for the COH fans whose noses are out of joint because they weren't invited to the party. To expect other people to deepen their legal jeopardy just to enable your fun is the height of nerd entitlement.
posted by Sauce Trough at 4:42 PM on April 18, 2019 [11 favorites]
I don't have a lot of sympathy for the COH fans whose noses are out of joint because they weren't invited to the party. To expect other people to deepen their legal jeopardy just to enable your fun is the height of nerd entitlement.
posted by Sauce Trough at 4:42 PM on April 18, 2019 [11 favorites]
Another option: document the protocol and give it to someone else to clean-room. (Which may involve posting the written-up docs to Github/Reddit and letting the world have at it.)
posted by acb at 4:59 PM on April 18, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by acb at 4:59 PM on April 18, 2019 [3 favorites]
I can't help noticing that "lovingly beefing" kinda-sorta sounds like the antonym to DEADBEEF, which is completely unintentional but somehow appropriate in a story where software has been unexpectedly hacked to be still running.
posted by Eleven at 5:26 PM on April 18, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Eleven at 5:26 PM on April 18, 2019 [3 favorites]
I had 14 max level characters so you can imagine my level of feelings about this.
posted by allegedly at 6:52 PM on April 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by allegedly at 6:52 PM on April 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
Just here to say how much I miss CoH.
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:03 PM on April 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:03 PM on April 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
Something else that just popped up: the presentation for City of Heroes 2, the never-made successor to CoH.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:05 PM on April 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:05 PM on April 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
It completely and totally makes sense to me that if I lucked into the server code for my favourite game that got shut down by its company, and I knew they'd probably take it off me if word got out, I'd be very very quiet about it.
posted by Merus at 7:17 PM on April 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Merus at 7:17 PM on April 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
the height of nerd entitlement
[any arbitrary thing else]: Hold my beer.
posted by DigDoug at 6:09 AM on April 19, 2019
[any arbitrary thing else]: Hold my beer.
posted by DigDoug at 6:09 AM on April 19, 2019
CoH was one of the first games I really got into. I can understand why people are upset, feeling like they've been missing out, but it made me smile just to see that the game's still around, in one form or another.
Possible good news: the cityofheroes subreddit has a 22 hour old, stickied post claiming that a new public server is in the works. And, apparently, the source files have been released, so there's a good chance that someone will be setting up a server at some point.
posted by davedave at 11:03 AM on April 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
Possible good news: the cityofheroes subreddit has a 22 hour old, stickied post claiming that a new public server is in the works. And, apparently, the source files have been released, so there's a good chance that someone will be setting up a server at some point.
posted by davedave at 11:03 AM on April 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
CoH is one of the only two MMORPGs I've spent any time on. I only got one character up to level cap, but I enjoyed the heck out of doing so. I'd love for it to come back in a form I could play it.
posted by Tabitha Someday at 6:59 PM on April 19, 2019
posted by Tabitha Someday at 6:59 PM on April 19, 2019
Developing and running this service places the developers in legal and civil jeopardy. It seems completely understandable they would be sub rosa about it.
I would bet it's more about retaining ownership/control. I've seen many projects like this over the years, and with very few exceptions, whoever reverse-engineers the thing NEVER releases their code; there's a sop of "oh, it's not ready for distribution," but even when they abandon the project (also inevitable) nothing is released. There's always a feeling of, "This is mine, you can't have it." Which is ridiculous, since they're running someone else's work in the first place, but that's bullshit nerd culture for you.
posted by curious nu at 10:07 AM on April 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
I would bet it's more about retaining ownership/control. I've seen many projects like this over the years, and with very few exceptions, whoever reverse-engineers the thing NEVER releases their code; there's a sop of "oh, it's not ready for distribution," but even when they abandon the project (also inevitable) nothing is released. There's always a feeling of, "This is mine, you can't have it." Which is ridiculous, since they're running someone else's work in the first place, but that's bullshit nerd culture for you.
posted by curious nu at 10:07 AM on April 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
I finally managed to log in, roll a character, and play through the sewers with a pick-up group. Lots that I've forgotten and more that they still need to work on (it's hard to do a street-sweep mission when it takes forever for the baddies to respawn), but boy, was it sweet to get back in the saddle.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:57 PM on April 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:57 PM on April 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
Latest chapter in the drama: the test server was shut down due to one of the administrators getting a probably-fake takedown notice allegedly from NCSoft. It will be back up soon, probably, we hope.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:01 PM on April 22, 2019
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:01 PM on April 22, 2019
Oh, man, masterminds. I haven't thought about those in years. I had at least two, but one of my favorites was a robot/forcefield one I called Havoc Mass. His backstory was that he was a military project--Havoc Mass units would get dropped behind enemy lines, and then they'd use their onboard forcefield manipulators to assemble squads of robots from anything they could find and just go nuts. They built him a little too smart, though, and he trashed the lab and escaped.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 4:32 AM on April 23, 2019
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 4:32 AM on April 23, 2019
One more comment: if anyone is interested in trying the game as it exists now, there are instructions at https://www.reddit.com/r/Cityofheroes/comments/bf462j/a_guide_for_preparing_to_join_the_public_server/
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:39 AM on May 1, 2019
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:39 AM on May 1, 2019
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posted by trunk muffins at 1:53 PM on April 18, 2019 [8 favorites]