Quote Originally Posted by Vhailor View Post
I think the easier approach would be to release some official resources and reference docs, and leave it to modders. As I understand it, there are already groups aiming to reboot FFXIV 1.x on their own, without any assistance from SE whatsoever. Why not release the assets and such, boost their efforts? The whole thing would be nearly free-of-cost, and might even turn into a useful test bed for new ideas as modders play around and implement new things that could apply to modern-day XIV.
SE would never do that, because that would allow players to create their own FFXIV V1.0 game. Yoshi-P's response kinda means that SE would really have no recourse to take down any V1.x server emulator, since he basically said "we threw it away". That said any working server emulator would run afoul of copyright laws, and has been tested with WoW and previously Battle.net itself. It's not the server emulator itself that is really the problem, it's the fact that you'd need people to commit copyright infringement to acquire the 1.x client, since as everyone knows, you had to pay money for the game client. It was never free.

Now what SE could do as a sort of middle-ground. They could release an authorized complete 1.00+1.23b patch set as a disc image for people who have the 1.x license, as this information is obviously still data they retain. Anyone who has a paid license to 2.x or later could "buy" access to this 1.x game client. This gives people a legitimate way of obtaining the game client without inducement of copyright infringement. After all, us 1.x players did pay for the 1.x game so we should have the right to obtain and use the client, even if the server's been gone for years. Whatever people do with it (Machinima, single player conversion, limited multiplayer, etc) SE would just ignore unless it violates the Materials License in the same way they'd not approve if it was ARR/HW/SB (So no unapproved SE assets, no hate/porn mods.)

The loser of at least one WoW server emulator was ordered to pay 88 million dollars in 2010. So it is unlikely anyone who has the means of producing a working server emulator would even be willing to publish working game binaries without some kind of approval from SE that SE will not sue them. I'm aware of what exists already, and what exists only lets you explore an empty world and invoke some of the cutscenes at the inn. Completely contextless.

Quote Originally Posted by HyoMinPark View Post
I'd like to experience it. But the best way would probably be as Vhailor suggested: release more source code so private servers can form. It wouldn't be the same if my character was illustrated as a Derplander fill-in. I couldn't play 1.0 despite owning a copy someone gave me because of system requirements so. Would still be nice to at least experience the story, and after watching a lot of the Speakers Network videos, to walk around the areas (particularly Coerthas) because I like that sort of thing.
SE would not release the source code because as Yoshi-P said, they threw it away. I'd hope that a company like SE kept a versioning system around so that it would be possible to actually see the source code, but it's unlikely that the client and server were produced as separate things, and rather they were built together, and thus the entire build process tools and original assets would be needed to compile the game, and that's just not a viable thing even if SE could get all the copyrights clearances approved. They may own the game, but ask yourself why the materials license always calls out specific tracks that aren't to be used.

Speakers Network utilizes one of the server emulators in a working state to basically allow themselves to take video/screenshots of areas, had they access to a working 1.x game, many of these areas would have NPC's in them, let alone monsters. On the plus side it also lets them explore areas that were in development.

At any rate, what will eventually happen, SE approval or not, is someone will come up with a way to play the 1.x game solo/pseudo-solo. SE is a lawsuit happy company and tends to stomp on any kind of fan production/sequel/prequel if it starts to look like anything more than proof-of-concept. So I doubt anyone would release such a thing without some requirement that they have a fully patched 1.23b game client just sitting on their computer to side step the copyright elephant.