Golden age of emulation?

[Maisteri]

What do you think was the golden age of emulation? Or is the golden age going on right now?

I personally think it was in 2.3 - 2.4.3 TBC was coming to an end, almost all spell's were working but instances werent that greatly scripted on all servers but for PvP this was great time. It took some time for servers to get the Zul'Aman and Sunwell items but it was worth the wait 6):

/discuss

[Le Froid]

I remember that 2.3-2.4.3 sucked ass :\ Everyone was into Ascent or pretending to have their emu and Burlex was busy hacking peoples servers and being a douche

I don't really remember a "golden age" but I've been really interested in wcell and mangos latest progress.

[The-Eradicator]

Emulation has never had a "golden age".

Emulation began to decline around 2.4.3, when a lot of pivotal members around the community got tired of the drama and quit, but it wasn't really that fantastically amazing back then either.

[TheZaronz]

Just because Ascent died in 2.4.3 doesn't mean the emulation declines. It's doing good and there is a lot of good emulators today as well.

[stoneharry]

Emulation declines at the start of each major patch and then improves massively as you draw to the end of a major patch. It's always the same, 2.4.3 was the last patch before WOTLK hence there being a longer period of no-patch time. This allowed emulators to get ahead before getting dramatised in 3.0.

[The-Eradicator]

Just because Ascent died in 2.4.3 doesn't mean the emulation declines. It's doing good and there is a lot of good emulators today as well.

Did you read my post?

I didn't even mention Ascent, because that isn't what I was talking about. I'm talking about the contributing members both there and on MaNGOS that left around that time, of which there were many and for a multitude of reasons: didn't like TBC (I fell into that boat), didn't care for the drama springing up, or just didn't want to work on emulators anymore. When they left, they did not go to the new emulators, thus we lost several of the talented members that were fixing the cores along with the normal developers.

Emulation is still down right now because there haven't been people to replace those who left in 2.4.3. Take a look at the server lists and you'll notice most of the servers are even worse than the average server in 2.4.3. That's because the people who left took their servers with them. This results in the good players leaving, or going to large servers that don't help the community.

I'm not saying emulation is bad, or won't recover, all i'm saying is there has been a noticeable decline since 2.4.3 (and perhaps a bit before that). Aside from that, i'm also saying there is, and likely never will be a "golden age" of emulation, because as Stoneharry said it's more or less the same cycle.


That's my two cents. Take it as you will.

[Ground Zero]

2.4.3 was the peak of Emulation imo, after that it slowly declined.

[2dgreengiant]

1.12.1

/solved

[stoneharry]

1.12.1

/solved

...and no epic WOTLK game mechanics?

[Found]

2.4.3 was the peak of Emulation imo, after that it slowly declined.

Agreed 100%, during this time emulation was the greatest.
All of the new shit etc. Idk its my personal opinion.

Well.. yeah..

[Trollblod]

I'd call the end of TBC the Golden Age when I found about the private server called "Exigence Gaming" Took me 3 months to get GM status there, played the whole Autumn+Summer.
Then they ruined the shit by listening to screaming kids who said their mothers donated but they haven't received their stuff.
Banned people when a group of kids said he/she hacked.
Accused good people for hacking in duels (if you won over a GM/Admin you got instant banned).
So I gave back my GM status.
Haven't been interested in private servers since then, the level cap were at 200 btw, awesome...

[Hellgawd]

Unfortunately, I have to agree with 2d on this one. :P 1.12.1 was probably the best time in emulation as far as I am concerned for drama and such. There's a lot more people involved now but less of the 'key figures', more up and coming people that want to learn Lua instead of C++. There are a few emulators, yeah, but none really have the 'dazzle'.

[iMurloc]

I have to agree as well, 1.12.1 was an awesome time!

[Ragonz]

just before TBC came out was great, mostly everything was working and there were loads of people around, after that everything started to go downhill

[Ballwinkle]

1.12.1 hackpatch :S wowemu was good tho. i liked 2.4.3