Questions about EQemu
 

Hey guys,

I used to play the original EQ back from 2000-2004. I've heard about the emulator, but never actually looked into it much partially because I never thought it was legit. I have a few questions if anyone minds answering them for me.

How does SOE legally allow people to make their own servers and play on them and not on the servers they provide?

How many people actually play on EQemu servers?

How many servers are there?

I would have to guess that not many people play on EQ emulator servers, so how do people manage leveling up etc.? Back in the day, pretty much nothing was soloable and always required groups to level up.

Can you make your own server?

On the emulator, can you modify weapons, mobs, etc like GM's can?

Thanks in advance!

I will try to answer short but specificly

How does SOE legally allow people to make their own servers and play on them and not on the servers they provide?

-They don't =P

How many people actually play on EQemu servers?

-Around 1k

How many servers are there?

-50+, some have 100+ population some less than 10

I would have to guess that not many people play on EQ emulator servers, so how do people manage leveling up etc.? Back in the day, pretty much nothing was soloable and always required groups to level up.

-You can adjust difficulty of mobs up and down or any way you like. On most servers mob power has been lowered, or players have been given better items so same can be achieved with far less numbers

Can you make your own server?

-thats the idea here =)

On the emulator, can you modify weapons, mobs, etc like GM's can?

- absolutely. You will even find things here that SOE wasn't smart enough to invent.

It is probably more like 10k+ players or so that play EQEmu, considering that many days the total peaks around 1k, and that is only a portion of the total active players who just happen to be on at that time. Here is the server list that shows the totals for each server and the total for all servers combined:

http://www.eqemulator.net/index.php?pageid=serverlist


Also, the reason Sony doesn't stop the project is because we make sure not to break laws that would let them stop it. Our project is software that has been developed completely independently from SOE by the EQEmu Devs over the years. All it does is run the server-side of the connection, which is something SOE has never distributed. We do not distribute the client, only the server and it's source code that was developed by us.

It is against the SOE EULA to play on EQEmu servers as far as I know, but there should be little concern of being banned for doing so unless you are talking about it openly on EQLive often. Playing EQEmu is not illegal unless you acquired your client files illegally instead of buying the game like you are supposed to. Running a server is not illegal unless you are breaking certain laws while doing so. Really, I don't think SOE cares to spend the fees to take anyone to court over such a small player-base anymore. Plus, I am pretty sure they visit here and get ideas of what they can do with EQLive to make new content and features by copying what we have done. Many people that play EQEmu do it because they don't want to pay to play. So, SOE is probably not losing much money by allowing the projects to exist, and they may even get a little benefit from it.