Reviving a dead MMORPG
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Have any of you heard of a game called Earth and Beyond?
Well, what happend almost a year ago was EA shutdown all the servers because they said there wasn't enough people playing anymore.
Now, I got really ticked about this and mailed EA about 12 times trying to get them to bring them back online for the people that still actually played it, and yet it is still dead, and I payed a lot of money for nothing because I can't play it at all.
Basically what it does is when I open the program, it tries to update, and then says that servers are no longer open, kind of like a World of Warcraft startup. I want to trick the program into thinking that the server is alive and that I have an account for it.
The game is about 3GB, so I know that if not all, mostly everything is render on the client, so I wont need a server to play it.
Is there a way I can modify any aspect of the game to play it offline?
I suspect the 3gigs is just models, maps, textures, music etc.
I don't think it is possible as the game play would be controlled by the server.
I don't think it is possible as the game play would be controlled by the server.
Quote:Original post by zealotgi
The game is about 3GB, so I know that if not all, mostly everything is render on the client, so I wont need a server to play it.
Games are more than just pretty graphics (although in some cases, not much more). All but a small amount of the actual logic will only be present on the servers, and unless you can get EA to release the game server program (hint: this won't happen) then you're out of luck.
Ive seen servers for Everquest and World of Warcraft implemented by non sony/non blizzard programmers. You would have to take apart the program(which is illegal) and see what it is sending to the server and what it is receiving, very complicated to do, but possible.
It'd take a huge amount of effort.
Considering the servers are allready shut down, you won't be able to use a packet sniffer to reverse engineer the protocol and create a surrogate server, which is probably the easiest method to do such a thing. So what's your next option? Lengthy assembly disassembly, or a ****load of trial and error, most likely both.
And this is for a skilled hacker, with a specialization in disassembly. Given that you have to ask the question of wheither or not it's possible, I can conclude you are not the skilled hacker I am imagining which would take a lot of time to complete such a task. That means it'd take you even longer.
IANAL, but I believe this route is possibly even illegal. Sniffing packet data AFAIK is legal (IANAL!!!), a method of reverse engineering. Disassembly differs in that you're actually looking at the implementation.
Considering the servers are allready shut down, you won't be able to use a packet sniffer to reverse engineer the protocol and create a surrogate server, which is probably the easiest method to do such a thing. So what's your next option? Lengthy assembly disassembly, or a ****load of trial and error, most likely both.
And this is for a skilled hacker, with a specialization in disassembly. Given that you have to ask the question of wheither or not it's possible, I can conclude you are not the skilled hacker I am imagining which would take a lot of time to complete such a task. That means it'd take you even longer.
IANAL, but I believe this route is possibly even illegal. Sniffing packet data AFAIK is legal (IANAL!!!), a method of reverse engineering. Disassembly differs in that you're actually looking at the implementation.
Quote:Original post by Gink
Ive seen servers for Everquest and World of Warcraft implemented by non sony/non blizzard programmers. You would have to take apart the program(which is illegal) and see what it is sending to the server and what it is receiving, very complicated to do, but possible.
I don't think that it is illegal if the purpose is to make it interoperate with your product (an emulated server, for example).
Quote:Original post by Gink
reverse engineering applications isnt illegal?
I am not a lawyer. If you have serious legal questions, consult a lawyer in your jurisdiction.
Absolutely not. The issue has been muddled as of late, by patents, trademarks, and other parts contained within the application being illegal to use. The big companies usually then just send out the attack lawyers.
Further, the end user license agreements usually contain a clause saying that you cannot reverse engineer the application. Given that [american anyways] law allows you the specific right to reverse engineer the application, these clauses are of dubious legality.
Essentially what those agreements effectively mean is that if you try to reverse engineer the application the company in question can revoke your right to use it.
Also, the actual artwork is still often copyright of the company involved, and may not be duplicated verbatim. For example, a war2 clone exists on linux. To legally play it though, users must buy the original game [so they have a valid copyright to the artwork] and then copy the artwork to the linux war2 install.
Quote:Original post by Telastyn
Further, the end user license agreements usually contain a clause saying that you cannot reverse engineer the application. Given that [american anyways] law allows you the specific right to reverse engineer the application, these clauses are of dubious legality.
This is being tested right now in Blizzard v. BnetD. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act also comes into play.
Quote:Original post by AldacronQuote:Original post by Telastyn
Further, the end user license agreements usually contain a clause saying that you cannot reverse engineer the application. Given that [american anyways] law allows you the specific right to reverse engineer the application, these clauses are of dubious legality.
This is being tested right now in Blizzard v. BnetD. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act also comes into play.
Ah, yes. I'd thought that had already been settled out of court. Here you go OP, the exact case law to determine if you can do what you want. Though the [more serious] DMCA issues should not not come into play if the Earth and Beyond servers do not exist anymore
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