UT2004 petition

[2k4playa]

To those who also play UT2004,

Epic has sort of shut down it's server.

Please sign a petition to bring it back: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/KEEP-UT2004-ALIVE/

[papercoffee]

OMG ...not again. Now it's 2k4 ...but CS1.6 can stay for ever or what?

[Feralidragon]

* Moved to Offtopic, as this is a UT1 board and not UT2k4 *

Your topic is highly misleading. Epic did NOT shut their server down, it has just some problems that must be fixed. Have you guys even tried to contact Flak first to check if something can be done about it?
Several months ago one of the UT1 master servers was down, one of the UT1 community members actually contacted Flak and even helped to figure out the problem, and the master server is up and working ever since, are you guys at least "trying" to do the same thing instead of just signing petitions?

Plus, you seem to forget that a company is not a democracy. UT2k4 is a product, which many are supposed to have bought in order to play it. At most, you should make it clear to Epic that you paid for the game which is still being sold and you have rights. Petitions won't work, but if you ask them directly about the issue they may do something, if not you can enforce your rights as customers as they have still to fully support a game they are still selling and officially supporting in their forums.

Think about that. I like UT2k4 a lot (didn't play it for a while though), but I think you guys are being melodramatic over the issue instead of taking care of it as a service that you actually paid for. You have rights, don't forget about that.

OMG ...not again. Now it's 2k4 ...but CS1.6 can stay for ever or what?

You cannot possibly compare those 2 lol, they are from entirely different entities, each one manages them their own way. And btw, CS1.6 is still ranked in the TOP 3 most played FPS in gametracker, above even recent FPS games.

[papercoffee]

Have you guys even tried to contact Flak first to check if something can be done about it?

I thought they did... wait they didn't?

And sorry I didn't see it wasn't in off-Topic.

[Feralidragon]

No afaik. In their petition they don't say anything about having done it already, and in the official forum, there's only this:
http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/875 ... rver-Issue

And nothing else?

If you dig out the General section for all sorts of things (UT1 as well), you will find 1 topic pretty much dedicated to one of the UT1 master servers. It was a joint effort between community and Flak (from Epic), and the server is still up and stable. As I see it right now, these guys didn't even try to contact Flak there and are starting a petition with no info of what they have already done so far. As long the UT2k4 community sits down and expects a petition to even being noticed, the problem will always be there.
With so many titles Epic has to handle these days, plus licensing the UEngine for several entities (including mobile, a giant market these days), if something is wrong for us "oldies", we are the ones that have to move and ask directly to the source, and you will most likely get an answer.
Epic has still to support at least UT2k4 given that they are still supporting it in their forum and are still selling it. If you sell a product that has online support, you have to guarantee that support, that's a right the customer have, otherwise they have to provide it for free or should cut even more in the price with the note they don't guarantee online support anymore.

UT1 is way older than UT2k4, and UT1 is still up and kicking, because many members in the community don't sit down signing stuff, they did something about it directly with the source of the problem, and Epic even recognized our existence later by saying a "Thank You" in the UT1 News (in the server menu in the game itself, although they also used it to advertise UDK and other things) and I am not seeing any of that here.

[2k4playa]

As I see it right now, these guys didn't even try to contact Flak there and are starting a petition with no info of what they have already done so far. As long the UT2k4 community sits down and expects a petition to even being noticed, the problem will always be there.

Flak has been notified with PMs numerous times by numerous community members (it's the first thing we do, she has asked so).
They just don't give a fk about UT2004 players. Last years the master server has been down almost every month, sometimes more than a week. Flak used to deal with this before, but I don't think she ever took it too seriously because of the often reoccuring downtimes. And now they've cut the support.

I don't recall longer downtimes than day in the period of 2004-2007. There was over a 1000 servers in 2007, tons of players. Now the load is like 70% lower and they can't keep their server running?

There's topics about master server all over their forum.
This one's started when their master server went down: http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/815 ... rver-query
To be honest, it's not down the whole time, it's sometimes up, but takes like 5 minutes waiting and returns an imcomplete servers list. What's the difference?

My whole server park has been pretty much a ghost town because of the 0 influx of newbies.

[papercoffee]

Did you guys try to e-Mail Flak?
Pm's can be ignored as long as you don't login.
But e-Mails have to be checked from an employer on daily bases.
A better chance to get the right people informed.

And yes you have the Right to ... you paid good money for it.

[Feralidragon]

^ What papercoffee said ^

Also, you should provide more info then about what you already did relative this issue. If you're asking to sign a petition, you have to provide more info. Perhaps some members in the community can do more and be more effective that way.

I must to reinforce that you "PAID FOR IT", so if PMs and emails do not work, send a nice professional put email to Epic (not Flak this time, the big boys) stating that you have rights, and when you bought the game it said "multiplayer support" and they are STILL selling it with the same features, therefore the master server HAS to work, otherwise ask your money back.

Communities should attempt the "nice way" first, in good faith by PMing/emailing Flak, if you got no answers, instead of a petition do it the "hard way" and present the commercial facts to Epic, and that is: you do not ask, you DEMAND the server to work, otherwise money back, you have that right.
Mind you that Epic is not making any favor to the community by keeping up the master servers, as long as they keep selling the games with the same features.
If they didn't sell the game anymore in any way or provided it for free, they could indeed cut master server after about 2 years after they sold the last one, and in that case yes, a petition could be a good idea although the odds for it to work would be minimal anyway.