After the existence of a secret private server for the superhero MMORPG City of Heroes was revealed, a copycat followed. However, this was already shut down a few days after its launch due to legal reasons. But there seems to be hope.
Which server is it about? For six years, the private server SCORE (Secret Cabal Of Reverse Engineers) of the MMORPG City of Heroes (CoH) ran unnoticed and was only available to a few players before the matter was officially announced a few days ago.
There was a lot of criticism, as many CoH fans felt scammed. The community always prided itself on its solidarity, and after the MMORPG was discontinued in 2012, only selected fans were allowed to continue playing on the secret server. This upset many.
Subsequently, SCORE operator Leandro Pardini released the source code, which led to another server being opened. However, this one was already closed after only a few days.
Hope is the last to die
Why was the server closed? The reason given was that they were on a good path to a legal proceeding and wanted to protect families. It was a tough decision, but the risk was simply too great.
That’s why there is hope: The operators state that they are now looking for ways to continue the project in other ways.
The server on which the game previously ran is said to be gone and there apparently is no way to access its data anymore. However, the situation may not be as bleak as it currently seems. The team is working hard to solve the problem.
There seems to be some kind of backup that is now being checked. Perhaps this can be used to set up the server anew. However, it is unclear how this would then solve the legal situation.
A knee-jerk reaction
What is the problem? The private server of City of Heroes was operated without permission and apparently also without the knowledge of NCSoft, which still holds the rights to the MMORPG.
It is currently unclear how NCSoft will react to the whole situation. The current situation seems to be based purely on the panic of the operators, who preemptively took the server offline to avoid a lawsuit.
The team apologizes for this knee-jerk reaction and now wants to work on setting up a new server as soon as possible – hoping that NCSoft does not initiate legal action.
Perhaps it would be wiser to wait for the release of the unofficial CoH successor City of Titan…
