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Gforce
rank 27
Posted:
Tue Aug 29, 2023 6:55 pm
quote : #1
profile : pm
Posts: 564
Type: NTSC-U/C
Hey Nikon, it's been a heck of a long time but I hope you've been well. It's quite a time to be a PS2 online fan with so many games getting revived.

With this in mind, I've been wondering if you had any thoughts on making a subforum or something along those lines to highlight this or help provide info to prospective players.

For instance, I had no clue the Japanese versions of monster hunter had been revived until I just happened to stumble upon the info.
  _________________
Yea, five years later, I finally changed the avatar....
lordnikon
rank 59
Posted:
Sun Sep 10, 2023 12:39 pm
quote : #2
profile : pm
Posts: 2839
Type: NTSC-U/C
Hey Geforce, whats up?

Well, the site is mostly dead. I have actually put a lot of thought into what to do for a path forward, but... people have moved on. I would be making updates for ghosts at this point. Even you yourself have not posted in a over decade. *shrugs* Not trying to hate, just pointing out the reality of the situation. Also, I am now 43 going on 44. Three more of these decades, and I am approaching death.

OC and PS2 OC specifically got chewed to pieces over the years due to the constant fluctuation in games getting released and then terminated. PS2 online went from like 13 games online when PS2 OC started, all the way up to 250+, down to nearly zero, and then back up to about 100 games online now. I was creating and removing speciality boards all along the way, and PS2 OC is all battered up because of it. The site never had a sense of perminance aside from the Lounge forum. I just don't think I can do this anymore, where the structure of the board I run is reliant on the structure of the online game ecosystem.

I can't even get the network testing done in order to write the documentation, to help out "prospective players". I have tried to get multiple longtime veterans to do some game testing with me. A few have helped out with some success, but the testing gets left unfinished. People are just at different points in their lives now. People have kids, mortage payments, health issues, and other life concerns going on. I do apprciate the time people donate to trying to get some tech working, but I just can't write any Help Documentation without other people's help. I think online gaming is a liesure activity. Testing online games is not. Its hard work, and people aren't that motiviated to put in work when the day has beaten them down and they just want to decompress.

I am still really interested in this stuff. I got MK Deception running online in PCSX2, have been experimenting with Netplay Emu to Emu functionality, etc. I have been researching the state of the FFXI PC Private Servers, and it's all very neat. Also, while over on the Dreamcast side, the release of server code has been abysmal, on the PS2 side, it's been great! Most of the revived PS2 online servers are backed by open source code. Even the Monster Hunter/Biohazard Outbreak servers have stuff thrown up on gitlab/github. Though, not many of these have good setup documentation. Even still, the fact that code is out there is key. On the Dreamcast side, this has been painful to watch. For the better part of the past 8 years, I have seen games get "revived" with no source code release. A user makes news posts there each time it happens, and its just demoralizing.

I thought about starting another board that didn't place such an emphasis on online, but I am afraid its going to have an initial spurt of activity, and then its just me posting yet again, and crickets as people drift away from the board. Time goes on right? People are getting older. It is what it is.

Anyways....

I only talk regularly with 3 other OC members. 1 via text on my phone, and 2 via jabber xmpp. Everyone else is gone and have moved on. If you are interested in possibly playing some stuff online again, let me know. But we would have to be on chat regularly or something. I would use discord but, I think they log chats, which I have never liked. I idle on quite a few IRC networks. Just me know if you want to dive back into stuff, and I can bring you up to speed. I know a lot about where the state of PS2 online is at, where to play, what to setup, and what is technically possible. Hit me up for chat, my door is always open. Smile
  _________________
The most effective, in this war?
The Bydo have it... and they control it.
Gforce
rank 27
Posted:
Wed Sep 20, 2023 6:08 pm
quote : #3
profile : pm
Posts: 564
Type: NTSC-U/C
Great to see you're still kicking man. Regarding your response, I fully understand it and everything you stated is totally valid. It's funny because even as I wrote my OP, I was thinking, "Jesus, this guy has kids by now. This is a long shot. Shocked "

It just sucks how fragmented the ps2 online community is.

Moving on, I will be contacting you on jabber soon. I'm going to have figure out my login info or just make a new ID. Either way, I look forward to setting up a game soon.
  _________________
Yea, five years later, I finally changed the avatar....
Azrial
rank 3
Posted:
Sat Oct 14, 2023 10:15 am
quote : #4
profile : pm
Posts: 16
lordnikon wrote:
Hey Geforce, whats up?

Well, the site is mostly dead. I have actually put a lot of thought into what to do for a path forward, but... people have moved on. I would be making updates for ghosts at this point. Even you yourself have not posted in a over decade. *shrugs* Not trying to hate, just pointing out the reality of the situation. Also, I am now 43 going on 44. Three more of these decades, and I am approaching death.

OC and PS2 OC specifically got chewed to pieces over the years due to the constant fluctuation in games getting released and then terminated. PS2 online went from like 13 games online when PS2 OC started, all the way up to 250+, down to nearly zero, and then back up to about 100 games online now. I was creating and removing speciality boards all along the way, and PS2 OC is all battered up because of it. The site never had a sense of perminance aside from the Lounge forum. I just don't think I can do this anymore, where the structure of the board I run is reliant on the structure of the online game ecosystem.

I can't even get the network testing done in order to write the documentation, to help out "prospective players". I have tried to get multiple longtime veterans to do some game testing with me. A few have helped out with some success, but the testing gets left unfinished. People are just at different points in their lives now. People have kids, mortage payments, health issues, and other life concerns going on. I do apprciate the time people donate to trying to get some tech working, but I just can't write any Help Documentation without other people's help. I think online gaming is a liesure activity. Testing online games is not. Its hard work, and people aren't that motiviated to put in work when the day has beaten them down and they just want to decompress.

I am still really interested in this stuff. I got MK Deception running online in PCSX2, have been experimenting with Netplay Emu to Emu functionality, etc. I have been researching the state of the FFXI PC Private Servers, and it's all very neat. Also, while over on the Dreamcast side, the release of server code has been abysmal, on the PS2 side, it's been great! Most of the revived PS2 online servers are backed by open source code. Even the Monster Hunter/Biohazard Outbreak servers have stuff thrown up on gitlab/github. Though, not many of these have good setup documentation. Even still, the fact that code is out there is key. On the Dreamcast side, this has been painful to watch. For the better part of the past 8 years, I have seen games get "revived" with no source code release. A user makes news posts there each time it happens, and its just demoralizing.

I thought about starting another board that didn't place such an emphasis on online, but I am afraid its going to have an initial spurt of activity, and then its just me posting yet again, and crickets as people drift away from the board. Time goes on right? People are getting older. It is what it is.

Anyways....

I only talk regularly with 3 other OC members. 1 via text on my phone, and 2 via jabber xmpp. Everyone else is gone and have moved on. If you are interested in possibly playing some stuff online again, let me know. But we would have to be on chat regularly or something. I would use discord but, I think they log chats, which I have never liked. I idle on quite a few IRC networks. Just me know if you want to dive back into stuff, and I can bring you up to speed. I know a lot about where the state of PS2 online is at, where to play, what to setup, and what is technically possible. Hit me up for chat, my door is always open. Smile



We are still around on tribes. It's slow going but we typically are getting like 10 per event. The discord seems to help. Then I've been slowly tracking old people down on Reddit, Twitter/X, etc. www.tribesaerialassault.com is the website I've been making to keep all the old data I find in order. We did a map pack upgrade if you play on a PCSX2 nightly build. It seems to be the easier pcsx2 version to use anyways since it has internet built in without having to patch in fix files to be able to set network settings etc. Either way we are happy to get people just reconnected. Even if they aren't joining in the games all the time. Sometimes it sparks into playing new games with old friends. Sometimes it gives us contact to people we have not been able to reach before. These old games are still fun to play. Arguably the gameplay on almost every older game is more fun than the newer stuff. They just lack graphically.
 
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