Patching Alternatives

[a_Guest03]

Additionally,

You can't please everyone. I noticed 60% want to see this happen. I've wanted this since the Platinum series, since before POP, before Velius, even. This should be intuitive, and you shouldn't ask for permission, FNW. You know the answer, and everyone who has been involved for more than two years knows the answer.

This shouldn't be democratic anyway. If you are looking for a solution to please the group, to be considered successful, here are the most basic demands of your public:

1. Everquest, emulated (check)
2. Ability to build a system with control of their world (check)
3. Centralized Loginserver mandatory (check)
4. World content populated (check, could use more, but mostly check)
5. Revitalization of memories relived through gameplay with friends (check)
6. A system that works stably the first time and every time and has support (missing)
7. Documentation (... needs work once system is complete)

Anything else is a desire, a want. The above are 7 identified needs.

What has this community given up in opportunity cost to see this dream?

1. Money - donations (often over $10)
2. Time - time spent in the forums, discussing, testing
3. Risk - risk of losing an EQlive account (granted, small risk)

Let's see... I can't count on hands and feet the times I've seen donations over $10 to see the light at the end of the tunnel, or to make your job easier, to make the above requirements possible.

There's no donatable amount of money that will give us the 6th requirement without using a snapshot. I can't pay for fulltime programmers to fix the bugs, and our collective money (from some teenagers, many 20-somethings, some 30-somethings, and a handful older) just isn't enough! So, the alternative is that we all pay $20 to Sony and its distribution channel for that snapshot. And why not? Homage, to the programmers, to the company that created this program isn't a bad thing. They created the content, the world in which you experienced the original memories. $20 is the cost of two month's membership, no? For unlimited play, I'd pay $20. If anyone sees $20 as more valuable than this, let me know where I can get 7 years of content, programming, innovation, more game than I can handle? The pacman series can still cost $20.

The COMPUTERS THAT RUN THIS, the NETWORK that runs this, all of the capital investments, probably cost LOADS more per person than $20.

This is a steal.

Final positive note: Sony gets paid. They didn't come in and smite us, even though I'm sure enough flexing of the lawyers on retainer would have smote this years ago. Give them a reason to let this happen again in the future, to issue a big release like this again at the end of life for a game. We're giving them a big kiss goodbye, and getting what we've wanted for so long, for a price worth paying.

Think about it, and you'll come to the same conclusion. If you don't, please explain how this is a bad idea.