The EQ Emulator world melted down yesterday

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For those not familiar, there has been a lot of EQ emulators (as there are with others like WoW, CoH, etc) and DB has left them alone. THJ has only been up since November 1st, but has already jumped to a steady population of 2,500-3,000 active players on the server. DB has always been a bit secretive with their population numbers (ever since they took server pops down when population began declining after Planes of Power), but current speculation is that they are far more invested in whale-servicing (which is guessed to be less than 1,500 active players) through constantly making new TLPs (Time-Locked Progression servers) rather than getting back to innovative content.

One aspect DB may have a point on is that THJ created their own currency (ECM - Echoes of Memory) and while you can earn them through just playing the game, you can also buy them (RWT). I don't know of any other emu that does that (although my knowledge on them is somewhat limited). The closest I know of is CoH: Homecoming which allows donations for assisting in keeping the servers up and new content to be developed (through a deal worked out with NCSoft).

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That is insane. I may want to check this out

What you describe regarding their own currency though is a major facepalm. In no way does any private server have any right whatsoever to charge its player base.

THJ is such a refreshing take on EQ, I’ve been really enjoying it from time to time.

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t doesn't matter. They are making money off of what is essentially stolen code/assets. I am in favor of private servers, but this kind of thing just a heat magnet.

I don't think Daybreak would care if the server wasn't as popular as it is, but this is the #1 thing they can hang their hat on.

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They can, but it's going to be a highly problematic argument as they have publicly approved of P99 doing it (for all three of their servers) while ignoring all the others which do it (EZ, PEQ, Lazarus, Imperium, etc). To be fair, none of them (including THJ) are profiting, with all donations going towards keeping the equipment up and running (bandwidth, servers, rack rent, etc).

As to the popularity issue, I too think that's it in nutshell. THJ routinely has more active players than all other legendary level EQ Emulator servers combined. LINK

Another problem they're going to have with making that point is that it's mentioned as almost an afterthought in their filing, instead focusing on IP aspects of names and images as well as making the bizarre claim that THJ seeks to defraud players by fooling them into thinking they are logging into EQ Live servers (and that claim is sandwiched between the complaint about having EQ branding present and the removal of EQ branding for custom branding ).

If this were when they first went after P99, I could see a better case. The problem is they've allowed many others to do this exact thing and have either actively ignored it or actively approved it. While the courts have generally had no problem with selective enforcement, the level this rises to could open up avenues for defense via laches or estoppel.

Laches: If the party can show they relied on the IP holder’s prior inaction and suffered prejudice (ie: did not seem to care until their server became the most successful emu, possibly even more than DB's own servers).

Estoppel/Acquiescence: If the IP holder's inaction implied consent (like above, by publicly tolerating similar uses), the new party could argue they reasonably believed their use was allowed. This may be especially true when viewing this through the lens of approval of P99 and ignoring the other servers (and there are dozens... *dozensofus.gif*).

Looks like they shut down for good last night.

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Looks like they shut down for good last night.

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Yep, the court finally granted DBG's injunction.

Now to wait and see what they blame the failure of their next TLP on.

My first character was a human druid in Surefall. Fire Beetle Eye was a freaking life safer.

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My first (and main) character was a half-elf bard and I went HE mainly because of the ability to see at night (guildies had told me about the night blindness). At one point I rolled up a barbarian tank, the only way I could get from Everfrost into BB was to turn around so I could see the light of the entry tunnel in the distance, then walk backwards til I zoned.

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Old thread, apologies for the bump. I stuck with my Druid and ended up being the server (Quellious) first w/ full Vermi armor. That was well before epics and mounts, hell even before Plane of Hate was available. Then my gulid bounced over to Sullon Zek to raise hell and grief. Good times.