Self-advertising issue

[gamlith]

As I look at the current number of people online, Its great to see how much the population has grown from a year ago but more people is better.
I used to (and still do from time to time) play the table top version of this game as my favorite faction, the dwarves!
There are dedicated sites for each faction, like 12 but I frequent one, which has people that used to play in live.

Would there be an issue posting this projects existence on said forum site? (like a self forum post) The reason I ask is the sites are visited by Games workshop themselves from time to time (The website is privately owned not by GW) I don't want to cause any issues to you guys in posting about the game.
There are many people that used to play on live that just don't know that a private server is up and running. This might be a nice surprise for them.

[wargrimnir]

Advertise away, we also maintain social media accounts. We're not hiding anything here.

[Genisaurus]

It should go without saying that the below is my opinion and concerns. It is not a condemnation of the current PR direction. People who know better than I are in charge of PR, and I trust their judgement.

Personally, I wouldn't post about Return of Reckoning anywhere else. RoR currently does not have Games Workshop's blessing to use their Intellectual property, nor does RoR have EA's blessing to use assets owned by EA.

Legally, I'm pretty sure this private server is a breach of copyright and IP law in just about every country. I love the server and hope it stays around for as long as possible, but this is the truth. The only reason why this private server has not (yet) faced litigation is that there is no profit being made; not even a donate button. Once anyone, anywhere starts making money off of the assets and IP that belong to EA and GW, this server and every one like it will be shut down in an instant by lawyers. This is why the updated codebase is not made publicly available, to make it harder for other private servers to emerge which could charge money, and thus attract negative attention.

The only way it could survive a legal challenge is if every art asset was redesigned, and the IP no longer referenced Warhammer (change the names of every ability, class, race, etc.).

With all that being said, posting about RoR publicly runs two risks:

1. Bringing wider attention to it increases the risk that GW or EA will preemptively try to shut it down. Why would they wait until RoR starts making a single dollar of profit, when sending a Cease and Desist letter only costs 45 cents? It is inevitable that they are already or will soon become aware of RoR, but why tempt fate?
2. More players means more servers need to be activated, which costs more money from the devs' pockets. We all want to see this game succeed, but too much success too fast is just as dangerous as none.

So no, I would not post about RoR anywhere. Keep it word-of-mouth only. PM people you know would be interested, but leave those you are not 100% sure about in the dark. Better safe than sorry.

[Coryphaus]

RoR has been posted on multiple sites already in cluding reddit, facepunch, dakkadakka and a lot of WAR videos on youtube

Their is also facebook and twitter that RoR has grps on


To think that EA or GW dont know about RoR and is some big secret is just amusing as long as the devs follow certian rule like making no profit off the project is fine

[Libra]

I talked yesterday with GW personell regarding Age of Sigmar and ROR came up. They're thrilled to see it's alive and that the players are taking a step to make the game better what the original Devs did not.
Some are in fact downloading it (likely) to experince real WAR!

[feefy1]

That's my understanding as well. They loved the game just as much as we did and didn't want it to die. Hence they gave out the files no? As long as no profits were made ....

[xyeppp]

Hence they gave out the files no? As long as no profits were made ....

Just to clarify: No files were given, anywhere. All current emulator code is an independent work of the current development team, and is a separate entity from the Mythic's server-code.

[zulnam]

If at least one person from GW with a bit more influence is indeed sympathetic towards RoR and the game belongs entirely to them, then it might be possible, perhaps with a 25% share, for them to accept giving the new developers the freedom to ask for Donations.

It would be a first. The stuff they write underdog movies about.

[Gnash]

Unfortunately Zulnam, EA owns 51% of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. When our enormous group of players hand delivered requests for everything including pity as a reason to keep live up, directly to GW licensing department, who walked it straight away to GW CEO's office. He posted his heartfelt (sincerely) apology that GW could do nothing in light of that percentage of legal ownership of the IP. That is ALL EA owns, but at this point, it's everything, and a company that's been "awarded" with "The World's Worst Place to Work" TWO times in its life, you can bet its a meat puppet with stockholder guts and brains, and a zombie puppet at that. Their attitude and almost delight at throwing the switch on W.A.R.s 5th Anniversery is testament enough to their insatiable hunger for gamers souls and happiness. That post is still up on the now (almost) dead Alliance to Save W.A.R. (IIRC the name of grp).

Good Hunting

[zulnam]

If that's the case... *sigh*... I hate to say this...
We can always try buying it from them. Being a dead MMO and with GW probably refusing to ever sign with EA again, there's not much they can do with it. If someone contacts them about this interest, they might actually offer the IP for sale at an almost-reasonable price.

After that, we're a Kickstarter away from the developers actually owning half of the IP and doing whatever they want with it.