Author Topic: EA Games Drops Gamespy Liscense Supprot @ July 30th (Read 798 times)

Legacy_Carcerian · « **on:** June 26, 2014, 10:13:48 am »

Edit: Make that "Gamespy Drops License Support" (dam u lack of title editing!)

Breaking News: http://www.ea.com/ne...sted-on-gamespy

Games no longer supported: http://www.ea.com/1/service-updates

Gamespy Plans and Pricing: http://www.poweredby...py.com/pricing/

EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1ST, 2013, GAMESPY HAS CEASED TO MAKE ITS SOFTWARE AVAILABLE FOR LICENSING. EFFECTIVE MAY 31, 2014, GAMESPY WILL CEASE PROVIDING ALL HOSTED SERVICES FOR ALL GAMES STILL USING GAMESPY.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW THIS IMPACTS YOUR FAVORITE TITLE PLEASE CONTACT THE GAMEâ€™S PUBLISHER FOR MORE INFORMATION.

THANKS FOR A GREAT RIDE!

(Not sure it it actually matters to current nwn play via DC IPs or ClientX Serverlist, but news came along with shutdown of nwn vault, sooo...)

Legacy_Wallack · « **Reply #1 on:** June 26, 2014, 10:26:08 am »

I opened a post here: http://forum.bioware...2-30th-of-june/

Basically is just that every news site or even EA doesn't know gamespy doesn't support NWN anymore, it shouldn't be any problem to our PWs, maybe only to premium modules.

Legacy_Tarot Redhand · « **Reply #2 on:** June 26, 2014, 10:48:44 am »

I don't know it's changed but you used to be able to just go into edit for the first item of the thread and edit the thread title there.

TR

Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist · « **Reply #3 on:** June 27, 2014, 03:22:45 am »

Well, it appears that all of our fears regarding Bioware being purchased by EA have turned out to be totally true. Sucks. It seems that NWN was basically doomed from the start as being much too powerful for the end user/gamer providing them way too much power to create something that would entail NOT paying continuing cash into EA pocketbooks, not just them but all other developers as well.

Oh well, at least there are still currently ways of fudging around the issues to a certain extent, but it does point out why I hated the purchase, and have since stopped purchasing products owned by EA in particular, and will likely stop supporting other companies along the way as well.

The closest thing I have seen to an NWN style of player/gamer powered expandability has been the Elder Scrolls, up to and including Skyrim. But even that more graphically powered engine lacks the ability for a normal gamer to be able to expand as much as NWN 1 allowed and a bit less power for NWN 2.

Legacy_MannyJabrielle · « **Reply #4 on:** June 27, 2014, 04:34:58 am »

Yeah.... games like NWN might not have all the bells and whistles of the latest and greatest titles....

But how many other games are still actively played and have an active modding community like NWN after what? Over a decade now?

Of all the games I've played, NWN, Morrowind, Thief:TDP/TMA, and Oblivion have been ones I keep installing over and over again.... and there's *always* something new for them.

EA just doesn't know how to really foster customer loyalty in the long term. I can understand it's a business, but to be frank, the games I mentioned above have been the *only* games I have repurchased should I have lost the install disks or they broke or whatever.... I've repurchased NWN 4 or 5 times over the last decade. It's a game that is well worth it.... EA just doesn't really produce games of that quality, or if they do, they shoot themselves in the foot one way or the other in how they support the title.

Legacy_3RavensMore · « **Reply #5 on:** June 27, 2014, 04:51:25 am »

The most annoying thing is, I believe that people would have continued to buy expansions. I certainly would have--I bought everything they ever released for NWN, and still wouldn't flinch at paying $40-$50 for new NWN content consummate with what's being created now. A new kick ass tileset like Zerwk or Six has done, a few engine bug fixes and few expansion tweeks, a handful of new top quality critters and placebles, a new campaign--AND the continued support of the best computer based RPG game ever. So sad that they went for the increased eye-candy, yet dumbing down of the RP D&D flavor, and then eventually just did away with customization by mere mortals. Okay, I'm preaching to the choir, but...sometimes one has to vent about the corporate machine.

Legacy_3RavensMore · « **Reply #6 on:** June 27, 2014, 04:59:36 am »

Oh, and the men and women that do keep NWN alive, even when faced with not so subtle attempts to kill it off, are amazing. You're work, dedication, astounding creativity, and long term commitment is what makes NWN and this community a truly enjoyable place. You're not thanked enough, so...THANK YOU yet again.

Legacy_Wall3T · « **Reply #7 on:** June 27, 2014, 05:44:13 am »

well to start: this is rather old news, Gamespy support has been phasing out for some time now and was made aware to everyone. If it costs them money they wont support an old IP.

As for Neverwinter Nights Future, im not the least concerned. unless GOG stops support of Neverwinter Digital Copies, there should be no reason we as a community would stop what we do. If anything removing these ties from us makes us a complete free (indie sorta) community. So far none of what has happend has really effected us as a whole.

Legacy_MannyJabrielle · « **Reply #8 on:** June 27, 2014, 06:03:40 am »

The work on the nwncx to bypass the gamespy server all together is a great piece of work.

What would really rock is, if the game is going to be completely unsupported through official channels.... tear up the EULA and allow the community to hack the exe directly. Besides stuff already done like camera lock hacks, the gamespy bypass, new weapon VFX's, who knows what someone will think of that would be useful to the community as a whole.

And heh, my biggest gripe about the last bit of "official" support going down is the premium modules that still require that token "authentication" process to play. Would be nice if EA took the short bit of time to simply re-release them without the encryption.

Legacy_Verilazic · « **Reply #9 on:** June 29, 2014, 07:44:22 pm »

The most annoying thing is, I believe that people would have continued to buy expansions. I certainly would have--I bought everything they ever released for NWN, and still wouldn't flinch at paying $40-$50 for new NWN content consummate with what's being created now. A new kick ass tileset like Zerwk or Six has done, a few engine bug fixes and few expansion tweeks, a handful of new top quality critters and placebles, a new campaign--AND the continued support of the best computer based RPG game ever. So sad that they went for the increased eye-candy, yet dumbing down of the RP D&D flavor, and then eventually just did away with customization by mere mortals. Okay, I'm preaching to the choir, but...sometimes one has to vent about the corporate machine.

Heck, I'd easily pay $50 for an updated and optimized version of NWN and the editor that are designed to work natively on a 64-bit processor with greater stability. We don't really need more content from them, what would be worth it is a firmer and perhaps "wider" foundation to build on.

Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist · « **Reply #10 on:** June 29, 2014, 09:49:24 pm »

Heck, I'd easily pay $50 for an updated and optimized version of NWN and the editor that are designed to work natively on a 64-bit processor with greater stability. We don't really need more content from them, what would be worth it is a firmer and perhaps "wider" foundation to build on.

Heh, I bet most of us would, the issue being that it would cost EA more that $50,000 at min to re-create things, they have long since lost all the programmers involved, all the scripters and over 95% of all old Bioware employes by now. So, it would not be worthwhile for them to even consider it. They MIGHT have a backup of the source somewhere, but I can bet you that they would NEVER release that so called source to the public.

Another note to anyone reading this thread... You realize that these forums are next on the list of things to be dropped, right? WHy support forums for a game that is no longer supported at all? Why waste server space for storage, or bandwidth for transmission for a game that they have officially stopped supporting in any way?

Many games have bitten the dust over the years and most of them have lost all sense of official, company financed, support and forums? We should all be looking for a location where we can move. Again, we have already moved what 3 times now? With several botched attempts at improving/preserving things under our collective belts as well.

Legacy_Bluebomber4evr · « **Reply #11 on:** June 29, 2014, 09:52:47 pm »

Heh, I bet most of us would, the issue being that it would cost EA more that $50,000 at min to re-create things, they have long since lost all the programmers involved, all the scripters and over 95% of all old Bioware employes by now. So, it would not be worthwhile for them to even consider it. They MIGHT have a backup of the source somewhere, but I can bet you that they would NEVER release that so called source to the public.

Another note to anyone reading this thread... You realize that these forums are next on the list of things to be dropped, right? WHy support forums for a game that is no longer supported at all? Why waste server space for storage, or bandwidth for transmission for a game that they have officially stopped supporting in any way?

Many games have bitten the dust over the years and most of them have lost all sense of official, company financed, support and forums? We should all be looking for a location where we can move. Again, we have already moved what 3 times now? With several botched attempts at improving/preserving things under our collective belts as well.

While that's always a possibility, they still have forums sections for far older games than this. Anyway, the new Vault has forums, so there's always that.

Legacy_Proleric · « **Reply #12 on:** June 29, 2014, 10:29:27 pm »

               The smart move would be to the new vault forums, archiving recent Bioware history in the Omnibus, but most people seem to be content to wait until this forum gets switched off. Sadly, critical mass tends to draw us all in, even when it's a black hole...

Legacy_MannyJabrielle · « **Reply #13 on:** June 29, 2014, 10:35:59 pm »

Well, getting everybody over to the new vault would seem something like herding cats. Best bet would be to blatantly advertise the new vault forums in signatures, and those of us already there make an effort to frequent the new vault forums more actively... at least I can say for myself, I'm a habit-driven type, so my still posting here more than there is well... habit!

Legacy_Verilazic · « **Reply #14 on:** June 30, 2014, 12:29:10 am »

Ah, I have extensive experience with herding cats, so to speak (don't ask). It takes a lot of work, but can be very rewarding when successful. I agree that we'd be better off using a forum that isn't hosted by some third party that we can't really trust any more.